Undertale: The Shattering AU - A hunt to remember
by HowManyJays
Summary: After finally getting his big chance at becoming popular, Papyrus learns an important lesson... and discovers a terrifying truth.
1. Prologue

_"King Asgore has lost his mind."_

 _When I first heard that rumours, I thought it was a joke. Even as a young teen, I found it hard to believe that someone like Asgore, one of the greatest and kindest monsters in the underground, would do a sudden 180 and become cruel and malevolent after just a few shocking moments._

 _Depression I could buy yes, but not insanity. He just never struck me as the type._

 _I've dealt with depression and the feeling of massive loss in the past and so I understand what it's like. That chalked up with the amount of pressure that would come from being the ruler of an entire race would have resulted in even the most rational monsters to not being able to think straight, hence the mess we are in right now._

 _I believed that it was simply a phase that would pass in a few years, and sooner or later, Asgore would return as the king fluffybuns we all know and love and everything would go back to the way it was._

 _But now... I am not so sure anymore. After last weekend, I'm starting to change my mind. Now I'm starting to realise that these rumours may have merit to them. Now I'm starting to realize...that King Asgore may have indeed lost his mind._

 _But I've gotten ahead of myself so let's rewind a bit._

 _About 7 years ago, give or take, the kingdom got an unexpected surprise. Queen Toriel, who had been gone for like 60 years or so, suddenly returned to home to the capital. Even stranger, she was carrying a dead, human boy with multiple scorch marks on him. I was not exactly a baby bone when it happens, but I was still very little and I still remember being in the crowd of monster witnessing her come through the main gates with the dead human boy. I remember how she obviously tried to keep a strong face on, I have always had a keen eye on things, and so to me, her face was filled with anguish and regret._

 _Not much about the kings and queens reunion is given to the public, but however it went it couldn't have been jolly, because in less then a week, something happened that changed what everyone thought would be a happy moment into a massive tragedy. A few days after her arrival, news broke out that the queen had died. She had apparently hanged herself._

 _Everything got worse ever since. The king started becoming very quiet and distant to the point where he locked himself in the castle and hasn't come out in years. He stopped taking visitors until very recently, but even then, only a few have had the privilege of seeing him since the tragedy and all of them have claimed that Asgore has changed drastically, and not for the better supposedly._

 _So due to his uncharacteristic absence and refusal to communicate what was going on, for the next decade, the entire underground has, for lack of a better phrase, gone to shit. Just for a few examples, in some parts of the kingdom, food and supplies stopped coming, there were massive waves of depression, plenty of civilians went into paranoia thinking that the king had abandoned them, and so on. Unsurprisingly, since it was so unlike him, plenty of conspiracy theories sprung to life in order to explain Asgore's sudden change in behaviour. Some of them even involved my dad, who had somehow survived a massive freak lab accident just a few months before the queens return and the king's descent._

 _After a couple of years of this, millions of monsters eventually had enough and there came plenty of riots and general mayhem. When everyone realized it wasn't enough, some monsters decided to go an extra step, and thus a rebellion was formed lead by Gerson Boom, the hammer of justice, and soon afterwards, a civil war happened. It was the first war ever waged in the underground , which considering all the thousands of years we have been down here, is saying a lot._

 _On one side there was the aforementioned rebellion, while on the other side there were all the king's men and women, including the Royal Guard. Throughout the entire war the king never left his castle and so Undyne was essentially the closest thing to a figurehead on his side of the war._

 _To put it short, the war lasted a short while and ended with the rebellion being crushed in a large scale battle and the rebellion leader, Gerson, vanishing without a trace._

 _The kingdom and the Royal Guard were victorious, and Undyne was hyped up incredibly in the news and radio as being a massive hero like she always wanted, which is why during the award ceremony, everyone was shocked when she refused her medal and then, live on camera, retired from the Royal Guard in disgrace._

 _A year later, when she was asked in an interview about why she quit her esteemed job and abandoned her celebrity status so suddenly, she was quoted as saying: "Because fuck the king."_

 _I have to admit that looking back, she is honestly my favourite part in all of this mess._

 _Afterwards, most of the Royal Guard members who didn't die in the war began following Undyne's route and after a few months, The Royal Guard became disorganized and eventually they called it quits and disbanded. I still remember when that news came on the telly. My bro, Papyrus, was utterly devastated. He didn't show it but I thought it was obvious. Throughout his entire childhood, he had wanted to grow up and become a Royal Guardsman and to hear that it might never come to fruition must have made him sadder than ever._

 _It's not like the rest of the Underground fared better. With no one to protect them, many monsters began to panic with even more thinking that the kingdom had abandoned them. There were protests in the streets, riots and general mayhem, while the king lazed and whined around in his castles, not seeming to give a shit that everything was burning around him. While a few monsters decided that "we didn't need the Royal Guard anyway and that we should all become our own protectors" or something like that, most didn't feel the same way. For years life down here got worse, even worse than before the rebellion. There were ideas about starting a second rebellion, but the risks were too great and yes, the Royal Guard was gone, but the kingdom still had a few warriors and mercenaries under on its side._

 _So in a nutshell, the Royal Guard was gone, the king hadn't been seen in years, poverty and depression were on an all-time high, and everyone was hopeless… for a while._

 _But then one day he appeared._

 _Mickey._

 _Nobody knows where he came from or who he was. The first time anyone had seen him, was when he just walked out of Asgore's castle and claimed to be his new champion. He was wearing a mask so most couldn't see his face._

 _In fact, in these past few years very few have had the privilege to see what this mysterious monster actually looks like, and those who have, claim that he looks unlike any monsters they have seen. It wasn't long after his arrival when whispers and rumours about this Mickey person began to spread throughout the Underground like a wildfire. I even heard stories that he has supposedly seen the surface, despite being very young. Sooner or later, everyone (or at least everyone who wasn't deaf or a hermit) had heard of "Mickey the Great" as they called him. Throughout the Capital, everyone wouldn't stop talking about this new saviour. Our hero they claimed. The angel of the prophecy, destined to bring us back to the surface. A legendary warrior that few could best, blah, blah, blah._

 _Obviously, my bro was one of his many fans. Like most, he had never really met him or even seen him, but he had heard so many stories of him that presented him as like the perfect idol. Eventually, Mickey managed to gather enough warriors and fame to form a new group, which was supposed to be a sort of successor group to the Royal Guard. The group was named "The Royal Hunt"._

 _After all, it made sense that he would take over the mantle of Undyne. Why wouldn't he? He was a considered a legend, a true hero that all of monster kind should strive towards... or at least, that's how he was seen in the capital._

 _I didn't discover it until it was too late, but down here in Snowdin, and other towns that are very poor and unfortunate, the stories about Mickey were different. To them, the tales and myths from the Capital about the greatness of Mickey and the Royal Hunt were nothing but false propaganda. In fact, to most of the poor civilians who lived to get a glance of him, Mickey the Great is whispered by another title, a more fitting title in my opinion:_

 _Mickey the Mad._

 _My bro learned the reason why all too well…_


	2. Chapter 1

**A hunt to remember**

 _An Undertale AU story_

 _Part 1: A monkey named Mickey_

"Please let me at least show you."

One of the most unusual thing about living in the Underground was that there wasn't really any universal timer. You would think that for a civilization that has lived down here for a couple of thousands of years, something so basic would have been solved a long time ago, but as the kingdom and most monsters have had more pressing matters on their minds especially during these dark times, there remains the fact that no two settlements can decide on which metric to use. Like how in the town of Snowdin it would be now considered late in the afternoon, while in a place like Apetown the inhabitants would say that it's early in the morning.

But what each and every monster could decide based on context clues and a few universal agreements, was when some things were appropriate to do and when some things weren't. Like monsters could decide when it was appropriate to go to bed and when you should start going to work even if there was no real clock. If the Underground really had a universal timer, then down here it would be somewhere about 3 AM.

Hence why a skeleton knocking on a door while yelling for over an hour at this moment in time would be considered extra rude by every monster in the vicinity. Fortunately for him, there weren't many other houses in the vicinity and he would have to be louder than he possibly could to wake up any other monster than Mickey. But his action would still be considered rude by anyone.

While he is far from the smartest monster down here, the living skeleton monster, whose name was Papyrus, obviously knew that, and he still has some idea on the concept of politeness and when it was the best time for things. In fact, he tried being polite and knock first but there was no answer. He knocked again later and shouted but there was still nothing. Most would have long given up by now, but Papyrus was not most, and he is anything but determined. To him, this simple of act of rudeness was a minor sacrifice in what he considered to be more important, his quest for greatness and to become a new member of The Royal Hunt. He told himself that this moment would simply become a footnote in his book of memories that he would read to his future children and grandchildren to explain his rise in popularity and heroism.

But he still wasn't smart enough to see that this was perhaps not the best way he could to gain the attention of Mickey, the famous warrior and the leader of The Royal Hunt, a famous group of warriors and the successor group of the Royal Guard

While many monsters, be they boys, girls or neither, wanted to join The Royal Guard at some point in their childhood but very few monsters followed with this dream into their teenage years and adulthood like Papyrus. But since The Royal Guard was gone, Papyrus thought that it would maybe be best if he could instead join the replacement group instead.

Mickey's house was a two-story building that stood on the edge of a cliff on the top a large hill that was overlooking The Capital. It wasn't massive, but it still looked fitting for such an esteemed hero such as Mickey.

"Come on," the skeleton shouted for what was possibly the 50th time. "Let me show you what I can do."

Papyrus was certain he was home, and he felt his suspicions be confirmed after he saw a silhouette in the house's window. Papyrus had never seen what he looked like, and strangely enough, so did most other monsters because photos and recordings of Mickey have been banned due to mysterious reasons. Yet Papyrus was certain that the figure in the window must have been Mickey.

"Please, train me," he shouted. "I'll do anything, just please let me prove myself. I'll scrub your floor, wash your armour. I'd even go far as to tend to your garden, just PLEASE give me a chance to join your cause."

There was no reply, and Papyrus was beginning to doubt himself.

Maybe he's not actually home, he began to think. Maybe that strange shade was just a lamp or an odd looking couch. But I might as well try for a few more minutes.

"I am very powerful, and I can prove it," he shouted. "Just give some trials and tests if you don't believe me and I will-"

"Oh for the love of god, and all that is holy on this godforsaken shitstain of an earth, will you please just shut up!"

Suddenly, all of Papyrus' doubts and worries faded. He was home all this time, he had just been hiding for some reason. Now despite the obvious fact that they are dead, normal skeletons can't express themselves due to the fact they don't have any muscles or skin for it. But monster skeletons are of a different sort, a magical sort, and so as strange as it sounds, this skeleton now had the big smile on his face.

"AHA," he said. "I see. You were home all this time, but you never answered. This must mean that you were testing me. Testing my patience. But I, the great Papyrus, am a master of puzzles and so I have seen through your deceit."

"What? Oh, there's no test here you imbecile!" shouted the voice from the house. "In fact, we are not hiring any new members at the moment. There is nothing for you here, so just sod of you dumb shit or I will walk to the porch and beat your sorry ass."

That last line made Papyrus shiver a bit, but nonetheless, he stayed determined. This was obviously a test and he was not gonna leave until he passed it.

"I see through your deceit," he said. "But I, the great Papyrus, cannot be japed so easily. You tricked me again, and now you are tricking me again. But I, the great Papyrus, cannot be fooled by such japes more than once."

"Oh for crying out loud."

Suddenly, the sound of loud footsteps that seemed to be coming closer and closer came, and Papyrus became more excited than he had ever been in his entire life.

He's coming, Papyrus thought to himself. He was finally going to meet the legendary Mickey, and become one of the few monsters that had laid their eyes, or in his case eye sockets, upon this great warriors, and having possibly the rare chance of seeing what he looked like. As the footsteps came closer, Papyrus could hear the sounds of muttering, that most likely came from Mickey, coming from the house.

"-goddamned moron," said the muttering. "Of all the goddamn nerve. What brain dead piece of sh-." It was clear to Papyrus that Mickey was just uttering a bunch of nonsense. The footsteps and muttering stopped when they were just behind the front door and were replaced with the sounds of something heavy being lifted, followed by a loud grunt.

"All right you bothersome twat," shouted the voice from behind the door. "I am going to count to 10. If you are still standing there by the time I open, I am going to smash your face into bloody dust."

Papyrus barely took notice of the threat.

"Bring it," he said smiling.

"Fine!"

Suddenly, the door was flung wide open as if the 10 seconds passed in an instant, and Papyrus finally gazed upon the great Mickey.

Only, Mickey was completely different from what he had expected. Mickey didn't look or dress as fancy as one would expect from a great warrior and the self-proclaimed leader of the Royal Hunt, but rather something you would expect from a lazy college student. Mickey wore nothing but an open shirt, plain white tank top and jeans. He was also barefoot, exposing his hairy feet to the entire underground.

Besides his unexpected taste of clothes, Mickey also looked unlike any other monster Papyrus had seen in his entire life. He seemed to be related to one of those ape monsters that lived deeper underground, but what was unusual for an ape monster though was that coming from the top of Mickey's head was what looked like a couple of thick and hairy tentacles. It was like a brown and furry octopus had fused with his head. Those thick tentacles were, in fact, multiple small and thin ones that were combed together, like he had tons of braids. He had seen plenty of squids and lizard monsters with their fair share of tentacles, so that concept wasn't so alien to him, but he had never seen tentacles on an ape monster before, nonetheless, any hairy tentacles. Besides the hair on the top of his feet, the hairs on the strange tentacles coming on his head, and the little strands of hair on his arms and legs, most of the hair on his body seemed to have been shaved off, shoving off the pink skin underneath that lay underneath.

In terms of build, Mickey looked like he was right in between being very skinny and being very muscular, while he managed to be a bit taller than Papyrus himself, so much so that if Papyrus wanted to look Mickey in the eye in an equal distance he would have to be standing on either his toe bones or on a small sized box.

In his left arm, he held an impressive looking Warhammer, while his right rested lazily on the doorframe. The hammer was incredibly long and thick, and both the handle and the top looked like they were from made either solid gold or copper. On it was carved a bunch of markings and runes that stretched all the way from the bottom of the overly long hilt, to the massive anvil looking top. It looked immensely heavy and swinging it seemed like no easy feat.

Papyrus was stunned. But it wasn't because Mickey was so different from what he expected or because he was holding a weapon like he was ready to attack, but because it just hit him that he was looking at the greatest warrior of the underground. A legendary hero that few had ever seen, and he had the privilege of being one of them. He wanted to scream in joy, but instead he kept his composure as he didn't want to be too rude to a monster of such great stature, so instead, he just stared in awkward silence with his mouth gaped in shock while his mind attempted to process all this. What was even stranger was that Mickey looked shocked seeing him as well.

"Oh," said Mickey sounding incredibly disappointed. "It's you."

Wait, he knows me? Papyrus thought to himself. Could this mean that he was already pretty popular but didn't even know it? Was he too humble to notice that people were looking up to him already? To Papyrus, that had to be it, because to him it was the only answer to why he had such a strange reaction to seeing him.

While Papyrus was thinking those things, Mickey put his right upper hand to his face and began to mutter to himself again."Oh, of all the goddamned monsters in the entire frigging underground."

"Y-you know me?" said Papyrus, finally getting something out of his mouth. Mickey didn't answer and instead just looked at the ground while mumbling something incomprehensible.

"I had no idea," said Papyrus."You know me? That must mean that you have heard of my greatness and amazing power. Well I, the great Papyrus, will prove those stories right. In fact, I'll prove that I am even greater than what you have otherwise heard".

After Papyrus said that, Mickey stared right into his eye sockets with a face that looked like a mix of anger and disgust.

"Fuck off," he said, and then shut the front door. After the door was shut, and he was now standing alone awkwardly on the pavement, Papyrus' mind turned completely blank in an instant, like all the cogs in his mindscape suddenly stopped turning.

"Wh-wh-wh," was all he could muster. This didn't make any sense. He couldn't have been rejected, not so easy and not like that. Unless…

"Aha," Papyrus said triumphantly. "I see through your tricks and japes. This must be another phase of the test. You almost had me this time. But I, the great Papyrus, cannot be fooled so easily-"

Suddenly, the door quickly burst wide open and in the doorway stood the tall and imposing ape monster Mickey, whose eyes were now filled with absolute fury, and with incredible intensity, Mickey stomped towards the skeleton until he was uncomfortably close to him and then Mickey stared into the empty eye sockets of the now semi-frightened skeleton.

"I'm sorry," said Mickey sarcastically. "I didn't know that fuck off means differently from where you're from. I have no idea what it means in your place, but from where I am from, fuck off means "I don't want anything to do with you so get the hell off my face". I've already told you. We. Are. NOT. Hiring. No ifs and no buts. Besides, If this really was a test, you would have already failed. You are loud, incompetent and seem unable to grasp basic fucking orders."

"But, but I can prove myself," said Papyrus stuttering. "I can follow orders, and not only that, I am very strong in fact. Everyone keeps telling me that I am stronger than them-"

"Oh, shut up," Mickey said while rolling his eyes. "It's not just about strength or willpower or any of that nonsense. Yeah, you are very strong, I know that. But I also know that you are a half-wit that got no real guts."

"Of course I've got no guts," said Papyrus. "Just because I'm a skeleton and lack some biological body parts, doesn't mean that lack the basic necessities required to become a hero."

"Ugh, that's not… oh, is that what this is all about?" Mickey looked like he just realized something.

"That explains it. You are just looking for validation for your sorry excuse for a life is all? Sorry, but f you wanna be famous so badly, then become a priest, or join that new TV program, MTT central or whatever the fuck it's called. If you don't have the expertise for that then bad fucking luck, but despite how strong you are, you are not fit to join my group. You would simply embarrass all of us while dragging us with you down the shitter."

Before Papyrus could get any more words out, Mickey stomped back to his house and went inside.

"Now, I'll say it again," he said as he put his hand on the front door handle. "Fuck off, and get the hell out of my face. I don't want to see you or your goddamned face ever again."

Proud of his rant, Mickey loudly shut the front door, leaving Papyrus once again standing outside his house completely alone and in complete silence. The smile on his skull had faded. No one had ever spoken to him so harshly, or that loudly even, and the fact that it was Mickey of all monsters who did that to him put him in complete confusion and disbelief. His idol clearly considered him of lesser worth, and he now wanted to go home and cry.

But no, he told himself, he's not going to give up just yet. This was his lifelong dream and he was not put it all to rest so easily.

"You know what?" shouted Papyrus. "No, I am not going home yet."

A loud groan could be heard coming from inside the house.

"I know how upset you are," continued Papyrus. "But I am certain you will change your mind and that you'll forgive me for your harsh words. This may not be a test, but in a strange and ironic way, this is a test for both me and you. A test for my determination and a test for your kindness. Just find it in your heart, soul, brain and whatever organs skeletons lack, that I am worthy, and I have what more than enough of what you are looking for. I will wait here until you come out and apologize."

There came no reply from the house. Mickey was most likely ignoring him again. Papyrus was now very tired. He had been almost all morning standing outside his house shouting, begging to be let in, and it looked like he was going to be here many hours more. Papyrus thought that it would be best to stop shouting for a while, and silently sat down in an empty patch of grass outside the house, and began his wait.

"He will change his mind," Papyrus said to himself. "He has to."

…

Hours had passed, and it the middle of the morning, and yet Papyrus had not moved from his spot. He was just sitting on a patch of grass, just thinking. He was mostly thinking and planning about how he should gain Mickey trust, but occasionally his mind was visited by other thoughts, here and there. These thoughts were mostly about his brother, how he must be worried, and as time passed, these invading thoughts became a lot more frequent over time, until it was almost all he thought about, despite Papyrus' effort in making them go away. Afterwards, those thoughts were replaced by ones about how incredibly sleepy he was.

Thus he felt he had a dilemma. He could simply go home to his brother where he could sleep in his comfy car-bed, but to do that he would have to leave this place which Mickey could interpret as a sign of surrender, and considering he had already gone this far Papyrus didn't want to risk that misunderstanding. He could simply sleep here and continue this challenge later, but doing so would worry his brother Sans too much. Besides, he didn't like sleeping without his bedtime stories.

But as he was so entrenched in those thoughts, he didn't realize until later that he was now laying on the grass in a sleeping position.

"Fine," he said to himself. "Just a few minutes."

And then the skeleton went into a deep sleep.

...

About half an hour passed and Papyrus was still lying there, sleeping. He hadn't slept an entire night, so this wasn't that strange, but since he was in such a deep sleep, he was unable to sense or hear what was happening around him.

What happened, was that the front door to Mickey's house opened up and the warrior stepped outside. Then, he went over to the sleeping skeleton, which humans would easily mistake for a corpse, and said as softly as he could:

"Hey, moron. Wake up."

"Just a minute Sans," said the skeleton without opening its eye sockets. Mickey sighed and began lightly kicking Papyrus' sleeping body.

"Hey," said Mickey, while his legs began frantically shaking the skeleton. "Wake up."

"W-what?" said Papyrus, his mind only half awake. He began moving very slowly, and tiredly. While his mind was getting faster, his body refused to follow suit at first. But as soon as his eyesight, he noticed that Mickey was standing above him, and suddenly, a burst of energy seemed to enter the skeleton and so he jolted up on his feet so faster than Mickey thought was possible. It happened so fast that it was almost a blur.

"Wowie," Papyrus said while trying to keep his balance after his sudden jolt made both his mind and body extremely dizzy "You scared me,"

He quickly regretting his choice of words.

"Wait I meant you could have scared me," said Papyrus in an attempt to correct himself. "I mean you didn't, but if I was anybody else less courageous, you could have ruined someones morn-."

"Just shut up for a moment and let me speak, ok?" interrupted Mickey. It was clear in his voice that he was trying his hardest to sound as softly as he could. "I have a confession to make."

That last sentence put a pit in Papyrus' non-existent stomach. A sort of hopeful pit, but a pit nonetheless.

"So I was right this whole time?" he said gleefully and started smiling again. "This really was a test? I knew it, I am so great at puzzles."

Hearing that, Mickey chuckled and smiled.

"Not quite," he said. "But you were right about another thing. In a strange way, This kind of is a test for the both of."

Before he could continue, Papyrus interrupted him with his strange laugh.

"I knew it," he said gleefully. "This really was a test, I-"

"Let me finish," said Mickey. Even though Papyrus was very agitated, he decided to try to be quiet this instance. He was far from being the smartest monster in the underground but he was still smarter than most would think, what with his childish demeanour and all, so he was smart enough to know that being loud and interrupting could accidentally push Mickey of the edge and squander what could be the opportunity of a lifetime. He still found it difficult to stay calm, but he still tried his best knowing this could be the most important challenge of his life.

"All right," said Papyrus.

Mickey continued:

"I have a confession to make. You see, I have been thinking about a couple of things these past few hours. One thing I realized was that earlier today I was a somewhat, prick, for a lack of a better word. I admit it. I shouldn't have lashed out at you earlier, and I apologize. What do you say?"

Hearing him say that put a bit of a shock in Papyrus. Did he really mean it? This was kind of what he was hoping Mickey would do, but the fact that it was actually happening was something he didn't 100% expect. The great Mickey, was apologizing to him?

In his excitement, Papyrus didn't notice that Mickey was now staring at him with a confused expression.

"Are you ok?" asked Mickey with a hint of concern. "You are shaking a bit there."

It was true, Papyrus really was shaking a lot. But the sounds of his bones rattling like crazy became mute to the skeletons hearing, as most of his mind power seemed to be focused on putting this all together. This was actually happening. This great warrior, one of his greatest idols, was actually asking Papyrus himself for forgiveness. This had to mean that Mickey seemed to respect him enough to apologize.

Of course, he thought to himself. Of course, he would forgive him. Why wouldn't he? Mickey obviously felt bad for what he did, it was only honourable and noble to accept it, and so Papyrus put on a huge reassuring smile and shouted:

"YES, OF COURSE, I FORGIVE YOU."

Mickey very spooked hearing this, which put Papyrus in a short state of confusion. Didn't he want forgiveness? Then why did he look so surprised by it? This put the skeleton in a suspicious mood, and if he had a brow it would be very furrow.

"Waaaaiiiit a minute," said the skeleton while putting on his best attempt at an analytical face. "Do you really mean it? Are you really sorry?"

"Yes, of course, I mean it," said Mickey, almost sounding insulted. "You didn't need to shout at me."

Oh, of course, thought Papyrus. That was a better explanation to him.

"Yeah, my father always tells me to calm down more," he said. "But I honestly can't help it, since it feels so good to be excited."

"Uhh, yeah," said Mickey. "That makes a lot of sense."

Suddenly, a stark realization hit Papyrus.

"Wait," said the enthusiastic skeleton. "Does that mean I'm in?"

Hearing that, Mickey chuckled a bit in reply. That chuckling made the skeleton a bit worried.

"Not quite," said Mickey, as he reached for the pocket in his pants, and pulled out a small plastic bag that was filled with a what looked like a couple of small, completely white cigarettes. They couldn't have been longer than Papyrus' little fingers. Then Mickey picked one of the strange cigars from the bag without looking and put it in his mouth. Then he put the bag back into his pocket, picked up a lighter from his other pant pocket, and then used it to light the plain white cigar in his mouth.

"Ahh, that's way better," said Mickey, and he put the lighter back in his pocket. Like the cigars, the smoke that came from it was also somewhat unusual. The most noticeable part was that it had a greener hue than normal smoke, but the strangest part happened when he inhaled a bit of the smoke by accident. The first thing he noticed was that he couldn't smell a hint of tobacco in the foggy smoke, but rather some strange herbal smells, similar to ones he often smelled in hospitals and apothecaries. But that was nothing compared to the feelings he got completely afterwards. He hadn't inhaled a lot of smoke or gas in his life, but he was more than certain that of all the smokes he had consumed, none of them had given him such a sensational feeling before. For a few seconds, he felt incredibly calm and homely, and he just wanted to lay down and forget about all the troubles in his life.

But after a while, the smoke inside of him completely vaporized, and gone from was the strange clairvoyant feeling.

Mickey gave a sigh of relief and smiled. The cigarette seemed to have made him instantly more relieved.

"Ahh, that's better," he said.

"What is that?" asked Papyrus with incredible enthusiasm. He wanted to immensely know the secret of that strange, and presumably, magic object. He had to know where he could find more of that incredible sensation

"You mean this little thing?" asked Mickey while pointing his thumb on the strange object in his mouth. "Ahhh, it's nothing special. Just some herbal cigars I concocted myself. It's mostly based on some type of medicinal cigarettes some humans smoke. I just changed a few ingredients and added some of my own. Gotta say, god bless the magic herbs that are grown down here. Way better than the shit on the surface. Those poor humans don't know what they are missing."

At any other moment, Papyrus would have been amazed to hear that the stories of Mickey being from the surface being confirmed, and would have asked a lot of questions about humans and what they were supposedly like, but at this moment he was just too intrigued by this strange thing that he barely noticed that Mickey seemed to know so much about the surface and humankind.

"Show me," said Papyrus enthusiastically. "Show me how to make such a magnificent concoction."

Mickey laughed in response.

"Not so soon," he said. "I only share this concoction with my dear friends and members of the Royal Hunt. If you want to know the recipe, you'll have to be part of my circle." Again, he hailed some smoke, only this time he aimed in the air away from Papyrus, much to the skeletons dismay.

"Speaking of the Royal Hunt," continued Mickey. "I almost forgot. You want to become a member right?"

Suddenly, all the sense and memories came rushing inside Papyrus. He couldn't believe it, he almost forgot. He became so invested in this strange object that he completely lost focus.

"Uh, yes, YES, of course," he said in his attempt to get back on track. Mickey smiled again.

"God, you're funny," he said.

Papyrus internally freaked out when he heard that. He just complimented me, he thought to himself. That really must mean that he likes me.

"But anyway," said Mickey. "Being a royal huntsman is no walk in the park. It requires a lot to be part of the Royal Hunt, much more than the Royal Guard, It takes incredible courage, willpower, and most importantly, you need to especially be good at following orders. Remember, you need to do what I say because I can kick out anyone I want."

"Yeah I can do that," said Papyrus confidently. "Following orders is my speciality."

Mickey looked at him doubtfully.

"Yeah," he said. "I'll see about that. But to become a Royal Guard, you need to prove yourself, immensely. Most monsters are unable to do that, which is why I only take in those that I deem worthy. This is not a job you can sign yourself into, I personally handpick the best, and whether or not they take my offer is up to them. Since you obviously want to be a royal huntsman, we can skip that part, so when that's done, all that is what's left is to see whether I have good tastes, or whether I was a halfwit and picked some weak idiot by accident. That rarely happens to be honest, but it's obviously better to be safe than sorry, right? So to make sure I picked right, I often put whomever I picked through various challenges and hardships."

"These tests," he said while putting his fingers in air quotes. "If you could actually call them that, vary from monster to monster as no two are same or have the same abilities. Now it's not really a test in the practical terms per say, but I have thought of something that I believe should be able to prove your worth or lack thereof. Wanna hear it?"

Those last few sentences put a pit in Papyrus' imaginary stomach. He was being invited an actual test.

This is it, Papyrus said in his mind. This test, if it really is a test he thought as he felt Mickey wasn't clear enough, would be the final step in fulfilling his lifelong dream.

"Whatever it is," he said with clear confidence. "I'm in."

Mickey began:

"So recently my group was informed about the whereabouts of some very bad people. Some cruel and vicious criminals who deserve to be punished, and so we have organized a Hunt to take place this weekend. In other words, we are going to spend the weekend hunting down these crooks and villains and bring them to justice. Here is where you come in. You are going to come along, with us, on this mission and if you manage to last and do well the entirety of those 2 days without panic or any failures whatsoever, you can join us and officially become a proud and worthy member of the Royal Hunt. What do you say?"

Papyrus couldn't believe it. It was that easy?

"That's it?" he asked in disbelief "All I have to do is join you for 2 days?"

"Yep, just come with us for 2 days and see what it's like. That should be enough to prove your worth."

"Oh my god, I-"

Before Papyrus finished his own sentence, he launched himself at Mickey and gave him a big hug. He had never felt so much joy and excitement in his entire life. This was everything he ever wanted. All his wishes, all his hopes and lifelong dreams of becoming a hero are going to come true. He was finally going to become popular. Popular.

"Thank you, thank you, thank-" he repeated in utter excitement.

"Whoa, hold on," said Mickey as he gently pushed the excited skeleton of him. "You haven't proven yourself yet for crying out loud."

"Pfff, that test sounds easy," said the confident skeleton. "Hunt down a couple of bad guys with a few awesome heroes for 2 days? I've faced Junior Jumbles that were harder than that." Mickey chuckled, assuming he was joking.

"You still do those?" asked Mickey in a non-serious manner.

"Of course," said the skeleton with no hint of irony whatsoever. "You should always do puzzles, it's good for your brain. It's like brain fruit. Or wait, is it more like brain veggies?"

"Wait," said Mickey "You're serious, are ya?"

"Of course," said Papyrus. "Brain fruit is really good for your brain. It can build muscles and help you see better. At least, that's what my grandpa always used to say."

Mickey now had his mouth slightly agape and seemed to barely notice his cigar falling out of his mouth and land down on the wet grass.

"Wait, just how old are you?" asked Mickey.

"I'm 14," answered the skeleton. "That's not too old, right?"

"Really?" said Mickey. "Goddamn, you look old. I assumed you were at least in your twenties. But it's alright, it's alright. Age is basically just a number in this job. It doesn't matter how old you are. It just depends on whether or not you are competent enough."

For a few seconds afterwards, there was a bit of an awkward silence between the two monsters

"Welp I am tired," said Mickey. "I am going home, make a few phone calls to let the others know to expect a trainee to join us on the mission this weekend, and go to bed early."

After that, he turned around and headed for his house. When he got to the front door, he suddenly stopped, turned around to face the skeleton and shouted:

"I'll come to your house in Snowdin on Saturday morning. You better be prepared by then, because if you are not, we will leave without you."

Papyrus got an unexpected chill hearing his sudden change of tone. There was something about the seriousness of Mickey's voice that put him off ease. But that feeling immediately went away when Papyrus realized something. He had never told Mickey where he lived.

"Wait," he shouted back before Mickey closed the door. "How did you know I live in Snowdin?"

"Gaster told me," answered Mickey. "He told me a lot about you.

Hearing Gaster's name hit Papyrus with a strange feeling that was a mix of surprise and confusion

"You know my dad?" he asked.

"Of course," said Mickey. "Why did you think I knew so much about you? Anyway, be prepared by Saturday morning. That's when I'll arrive at your house. Counting on you."

With that said he closed the door and left Papyrus to be yet again alone in the silence. Only this time he wasn't filled with sorrow and sadness, but instead the almost polar opposite: happiness and excitement. With that, he smiled like a kid on Christmas and headed home.

"This is going to be the best weekend of my life," he told himself. "Only a few days till Saturday. I can't possibly wait."

 _This story is a unofficial, non-profit, fan made content made purely out of passion._

 _Undertale and its characters and rights belong to Toby Fox._

 _Please support the official content._


	3. Authors note

Authors note:  
I know most readers don't care about authors rambling, but I just want to get a few things off my chest and you can skip this part if you want.  
So this is the first fanfiction I have ever posted online. Not the first I have ever written if I'm gonna be technical, just the first I've ever shared on such a large scale is all. The first fanfiction I think I ever wrote was when I was like 9 years old. I didn't technically write it down as much as I just had a bunch of panels that all related to one another, but thus "fanfic" was basically a crossover between "Jak and Daxter", and "Ratchet and Clank". Or at least it started that way, but as time went on the story went completely of the rails and I started adding characters from Sly Cooper, some movies I think, and even characters from freaking Grimm Fairy Tales like Little Red Riding Hood. Eventually, I started adding my own OC as well, who was basically the son of Jak and a complete Gary Stu. But as much of a nonsense, these "stories" were I kind of wish I had kept them these days, or at least a transcript or something. Not because they were good mind you, but as a kind of memoir and a token of my childhood past. But alas, during my early teens I entered a kind of an edgy phase and so I threw all my work and stories away because I considered them too childish and threw them away. You know that phrase about when you grow up you let go of childish things, including the fear of childish things. Well, these days I have managed to mostly move past that fear, which is more than I can say about my past self. Maybe that's why I have started writing fanfics again, after over a decade. Because it's something I have wanted to continue with for a long time, but never had the courage to write down my passion and ideas.  
But anyway, on the topic of this story there are a couple of things I wanna say. I started playing Undertale kind of late. I mostly wanted to wait until all the hype died down a bit so I could go onto the fame with a more open mind. So in the summer of last year, I bought it on pc(and if I had only waited a few more months I could have bought it on the PS4 instead of my shitty laptop) and sat down to play it. Even though I had gotten a few spoilers due to the nature of the internet, I had a mostly open mind. Suffice to say, I adored it. I loved almost everything about it. I loved the characters, story and music, and I am not exaggerating when I say that this was the first game to make me cry while playing it. Other games have managed to make me sad or made me tear up when I thought about them sometime later, but none have made me shed literal tears while it was still playing. You know when a game is good when your biggest problem with it was that there more of it(and also that there was no sprint) and here is the key, I wanted more of it. Now with the magic of fanfictions, every kid and fan of writing can have the chance to make more. Only, there was one problem: I didn't know how to replicate the game's charm. I can kind of replicate the characters I think(and hope) but not the tone or charm. Now there are PLENTY of UT fanfics and works on the web, and some of them have put in the utmost effort to successfully recapturing the soul of UT. But then I thought to myself: "If I can't recapture the tone and essence, why not just add my own charm instead?"  
And thus was born "The Shattering". An Undertale AU with my own charm and tone, with the first story being "A hunt to remember."  
But for now, I think I have written enough of the authors note.  
So in short, this fanfic slash AU is something I have been very passionate about writing. But I am also open to criticism, which is something I hope a lot of you will deliver. I am of the mindset that criticism is one of the most important things you can get as an artist because without critique, you won't be able to learn or improve.  
So just critique or praise or do whatever the hell you want with my stories. I hope you'll read it and the rest will come soon(maybe in a week or two). 


	4. Chapter 2

_Part 2: Happy days_

Sans still remembers that fateful Tuesday when he arrived home from work, only to find Papyrus uncharacteristically gone. Although Sans has a job in an unlicensed hotdog stand, his brother didn't really have any job to speak of, or that many friends to hang out with in general, so there wasn't really any good reason for him to be away for so long. Hence Sans' surprise when he arrived home on that day during his self-scheduled break, only for no one to greet him. At first, he assumed that Papyrus was simply in his room, too busy doing his daily exercises, cleaning and/or web browsing, but when Sans went to look, his room was completely empty. After that, Sans' looked in the kitchen, the basement, under the sofa, and even checked his own room which Papyrus knew never enter without permission. In the end, the only trace Sans' could find of his little brother in the house was his phone. Sans was starting to be concerned, because even if there was a good reason for him to leave, why didn't he take his phone with him. And if that wasn't possible for some reason, why didn't he at least leave a note.

Sans was starting to head out and look for questions, but as he put on the jacket, he glanced at the kitchen and noticed something that made Sans feel like the biggest idiot in the underground. If he hadn't, he would most likely have spent all day wandering around the underground completely clueless, because, under the kitchen table, there was a note with something scribbled on it. All the windows were open, which meant that the heavy wind that was earlier that day must have blown it away to its current location. Sans couldn't believe it. He was in such a panicked state that he somehow didn't think about looking under the table.

Sans gave a type of sigh that was a mix of relief and annoyance and then headed to the kitchen. He picked up the note and began reading. It said:

 _Dear Sans (unless the one reading this really isn't Sans, which in that case, what in the blimey naysayers are you doing in our home? There are only two people who live in this house and I definitely can't think of any reason why future me would want to read this (but if this really is future me, then I just have to say: I can't wait to be you)._

 _Are you a burglar of some sort? If so, have you no shame? Do you want to spend the rest of your life like this, burgling others monsters hard work? Just because you have no real morals doesn't mean that its right to break the law like that. And (wait, is it really a new sentence if you start it with "and"?) besides the fact that we are literally the richest people in Snowdin with countless valuables to speak of, why would you bother with our house when there are countless other houses in town just ripe for burgling (don't actually rob another house though, this was just an example). Well, either way, my brother Sans would be coming home soon and he will definitely teach you a lesson. Shame on you._

 _But if you are just somebody that accidentally wandered into the wrong house and just happened to own a key of similar shape, then sorry for the misunderstanding)_

 _I kind of forgot what I was about to write about. I think some strange creature entered my ear hole and began toying with my mind. It may have OH WAIT. I remember now. The creatures must have very regretful and returned the memories._

 _So anyway, you are probably wondering where I am at this time (if you really are Sans that is, but if not, then why did you bother reading this far?) but I have finally gotten the courage. Today is a big day not just for me, but for us. It's a day above all other days. Today, I am finally going to-_

But as Sans was reading it, he was bothered by a loud noise that came out of the blue. Somewhere behind him, there came a loud bang like the front door was being blown off its hinges and with it, came an even louder voice that was overly familiar to Sans, that shouted:

"SANS, I DID IT."

It was the voice of his brother, Papyrus, and when Sans heard it, he was filled with relief.

"Gee, you scared me," he said. "If I had a heart, it would now be on parole for physical assault."

"Sans, you dumb, dumb," said Papyrus. "Hearts don't know the concept of legality. Also, hearts can't physically attack- OH GOD DAMMIT SANS. NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR YOUR JOKES AND TOMFOOLERY. THIS VERY IMPORTANT."

"Woah, sorry bro," said Sans. "Didn't realize you lost your funny bone."

"SANS, I SWEAR TO…"

Papyrus was suddenly silent.

"You know as much as it hurts me," he began. "I'm gonna let this one slide because I have incredible news. Something spectacular just happened."

Even before he answered, Sans knew what had happened. There were very few things that could have made his brother happy, and with a quick process of elimination, there was one possibility remaining. But he also wanted his brother to have his moment, so Sans decided to play dumb.

"All right," he began. "What happened?"

Papyrus now looked like he was on the verge on the verge of tears, happy tears in fact.

"I did it," he said.

"Did what?" asked Sans.

Papyrus then took a deep breath, and shouted:

"I HAVE BECOME A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL HUNT."

Sans smiled. Not only did he called it, but it was also something he hoped what was happening.

"Wow," he said. "That's amazing news."

"I did it, Sans," said Papyrus as he began walking in back and forth. "I did it, do you know what it means brother? It's finally happening Sans, IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING. I am going to become a hero now. People will adore and faint over me. I am going to spoken about amongst the greats down here. I'll be as famous as Gerson, Undyne and Mickey and hell, maybe even as famous King Asgore himself. I am going to become popular Sans. POPULAR."

And then Papyrus ran into his room faster than Sans could react. He sat down on his desk and began frantically typing on his computer.

"I must tell everyone online about this," he said as if Sans was in the room with him. "The whole underground must know that there is a new hero coming soon."

"Hang on, soon?" asked Sans who was now suddenly in the room. "Don't you mean right now?"

Papyrus was slightly spooked. He hadn't heard Sans enter the room. Not to mention, he was downstairs in the living room only a few seconds before. However, as strange as it sounds, this wasn't that unusual or even that unexpected. Nor was it something that bothered him, because as long as he could remember, Sans always seemed to have the strange ability to seemingly warp to places in what seemed like an instant. Whenever anyone asked him about this bizarre and powerful talent, Sans always just claims that he "used a shortcut". To do this day, no monsters except for maybe Sans and his father knew what he meant by that.

The thing that did bother Papyrus, however, was that Sans' question. It made him realize that he may have not been entirely truthful to his big brother.

He turned his chair around so that he faced his brother. He looked at the floor in slight shame and began to scratch the back of his skull with his bony fingers.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention," he said. "I may or may not have been one hundred per cent honest with you."

He now turned his head, so that his eye sockets were meeting his brothers. Sans excitement began turning into worry.

"Y'see, there is a test on Saturday. At least I think its a test, I'm not really sure. Mickey wasn't very clear on that. But it's all right, the test will be easy-peasy."

"Oh," replied Sans. He tried his best to not sound disappointed, even though he obviously somewhat was.

"Now I don't want to be a downer," he continued. "But don't you think this is a bit of a premature celebration? Now don't mistake me, I'm sure you can pass the test and whatever it holds with ease, but shouldn't you save this energy for, y'know, after you pass it, when you have officially become a member? That way, you have even more reasons to celebrate, because then it will be written down, and everyone will know it."

Papyrus didn't answer for a while, and instead, he put one of his hands under his jaw and presumed his thinking position.

"Hmmm," he said. "Those are some pretty good points. Hadn't considered them for some reason."

If Sans was being truthful, the actual reason he said those things was because he wasn't completely certain that his brother would pass. He wasn't proud of these thoughts, so he kept them to himself.

Papyrus put his hands away from his jaw, which signified that he had stopped thinking for the moment.

"Yeah I guess you're right," he said. "But either way, I might as well celebrate now, because I'm practically already a member. All I have to do is join them for two days, how hard can it be?"

Most of Sans worries went away when he heard that. His brother wasn't exaggerating when he said that he would beat it in no time. This "test" sounded incredibly easy for Papyrus.

"Oh wow, that's it?" asked Sans.

"Indeed," said his brother. "Joining them for two days? I guess they don't know that I have joined them for weeks and months, simply in my dreams and my imaginary battle scapes."

"I mean if that's all it takes bro," said Sans. "Then you are right, you might as well have already passed it."

"That is correct, good to know that we are on the same mindset brother."

But as he was leaving, Sans realized something. Something important.

"Hang on," said Sans "Why didn't you take your phone with you?"

Papyrus made a move as if to answer but then paused in apparent realization. Then he began to frantically check all his pockets.

"I… uhh… I."

When he saw his phone laying on his desk, he stopped checking.

"I didn't take it with me because… uhh," he began. "uhh… the reason was… that I didn't want anyone to interrupt me. You see…um, bargaining is a very hard technique to master. Anyone can do it, but you need to put your utmost concentration in it to perfect it."

Sans didn't buy that.

"You forgot your phone, didn't you?"

"What? Pfffft, no," said Papyrus. "I am the great Papyrus, and I never forget things… ok, sometimes I forget things, like reasons for things… and uhh... math. Like I am sure there was a good reason for me not to take my phone with me, I just need to think hard and the answer will come back to me."

"Well, either way," said Sans. "I am proud of you,"

Papyrus looked happy when he heard that. He knew his brother truly meant it.

"Anyway I need some privacy now," he said. "Because I, the great and soon to be Royal Huntsman Papyrus have work to do. I must go on the web and let the world know to expect greatness."

With that said, he turned his chair back around and he began to type away. Sans then proceeded to leave.

"Close the door brother," said Papyrus. "Writing on the web is like mastering bargaining. It requires immense concentration."

"Yeah, yeah," said Sans and closed the door.

As he wandered down to the kitchen to make dinner, he thought a lot about what lay ahead of them, and he began to realize that his worry was maybe somewhat unnecessary. Papyrus was very powerful, and such a test was easy for someone like him.

Now Sans was not the type of monster who tried to make everything about himself, who tried to make every tragedy or success to somehow relate back to him, but for the first time in years, Sans was truly happy.

...

For the next couple of days, until Saturday of course, their house was a whirlpool of energy. Every morning on their dinner table, Papyrus would go on and on about his plans for the big day, how he would impress Mickey and the rest, and how they would praise him immensely. He also didn't forget to mention what he planned to do after the test when he was a royal guard, and most of these stories involved massive fantasies of fame and fortune. Sans had most of the time just woken up during these long storytelling hours, so he could barely listen and so he just nodded in reply most of the time. When Sans was at work or at Grillby's, Papyrus would spend be in his room, exercising, drinking milk, fancying himself in the mirror while talking to himself, and last but not least, browse the monster web where he seemed to have suddenly gained a large influx of followers after revealing his invite into The Royal Hunt. During the nights where he managed to sleep, he dreamt of heroic deeds and the wailing of fangirls. He would always be angry at Sans for waking him up while he was on the verge of being drowned in kisses.

But now the big had finally come. It was now Saturday morning, and the energy in the house couldn't have been higher. Sans was dead tired like usual, only now he wasn't the sleepiest monster in the house. Papyrus took the prize this time. He hadn't slept at all last night, as one tends to do when overwhelmed by an abundance of excitement.

But in a way, Sans suspected it would happen. Ever since Papyrus returned home after that fateful meeting on Tuesday he had been so happy and full of excitement that Sans was almost certain that such a high amount of energy would culminate to such an incredibly high extent in the last night before the big event that it would be almost as powerful as him being drunk on a few gallons worth of energy drinks. Sans, of course, tried to convince him in taking sleeping medicine, or at least something that could calm his metaphysical nerves, but Papyrus was so stubborn that he refused any type of medicine Sans offered, claiming on multiple occasions that they would "poisons his passion."

Sans once considered for a moment to sneak some pills in his brother's dinner, but then quickly changed his mind after realizing that it would be kind of a dick move, and would probably put a damper on their relationship.

But overall, Sans was proud to see his little brother be so glad. The last time he had seen his brother be close to this kind of level of overjoyed was when he found out that the Royal Guard was returning in a way, although under new leadership and with a couple of changes, most notably the name. However, that frenzy of joy for Papyrus was a follow up to his years of depression and sadness, so in a way, that day was more of an ending to his accumulated grief than anything else.

Papyrus had spent years preparing for this day, and Sans tried his best to support him all the way through. This was his dream, and it was closer than ever in coming to was only one challenge remaining, one remaining test, and Sans was more than certain that his brother would pass it.

"SANS!" shouted Papyrus from his upstairs bedroom."WHERE IS MY SPECIAL ATTACK!?"

Currently, Papyrus was frantically looking for his "Special attack", which was the name of his favourite pile of magical bone weapons. These bones were gifted to him by his grandfather before the old skeleton moved to a farm and isolated himself from the rest of the underground. Meanwhile Sans was downstairs in the living room, laying on the couch, eating a leftover quiche slice, while watching whatever was on the telly

"I dunno, have you checked your drawers yet?" he replied.

Even though it was his brother's big day, he was still too lazy to move from his couch. He was never really the most organized or hard working person, but Papyrus was like the opposite in that he always managed to finish his preparations no matter the schedule. The most productive things Sans did was to wake up on time and remember to wake up his brother, only to discover that he had been awake all night.

"SANS," yelled Papyrus when he left his room saw that his brother was on the couch "STOP BEING A LAZY BONE AND HELP ME FIND IT. THEY COULD ARRIVE AT ANY MOMENT AND I NEED MY SPECIAL ATTACK READY."

"All right, fine, I'll help you look for it," said Sans. He stood up turned off the tv with the remote. "Boring show anyway."

Normally, he would simply ignore his brother's request and keep on lazing, but since this was a big day, he decided to make an exception.

"Well, where did you last put it?" Sans asked.

"I dunno," replied Papyrus as he entered the kitchen. "Do you expect me to remember where I put everything I own."

"Didn't you say a few days ago that you remember everything except for something like concepts and math?"

"Did I?" asked Papyrus in bewilderment. "Well, that's just silly."

"So what you are saying is you admit that you forgot your phone?"

"Sans what are you… OH NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR THAT ARGUMENT AGAIN."

Papyrus, full of frustration, quickly opened up the immensely tall sink drawer in the kitchen and before he could react, piles and piles of bones began flooding out and consumed the entire kitchen floor, including the tall, frustrated skeleton.

"NO, NOT MY BONE COLLECTION," he shouted. "IT TOOK AGES TO ORGANIZE THEM."

He had been collecting bones that he would find in the underground as a hobby for a long time. He refused to have them in his room, so he instead put them in the sink. When his collection grew too large, he simply made the sink taller. When it was full again, he simply had it made taller again and so on, until the sink had become so tall, that you would need either a ladder or a big chair to use it.

"Wow," said Sans. "It looks like you're boned."

"SANS, I, uh…wait, what?" said Papyrus. "I don't get it."

"Eh, you'll get it when you're older."

As Papyrus rose up from the pile and looked around the mess that had been made, he noticed that a few of the bones stood out by a slightly different colour scheme, which to the brothers meant only one thing.

"AHA, FOUND YOU," he shouted. "Thought you could hide and run away from me? Well, not today my special attack."

With that, he brought out a paper bag and began put every bone with the odd colour scheme in a big pile.

"What were they doing there anyway?" wondered Sans.

"Don't know," said Papyrus. "And I don't care."

"Gee, you are sounding a bit grumpy today," said Sans.

"And I have every reason to be," replied Papyrus while going through the bones. "This is the biggest day of my life and everything needs to be perfect."

After Papyrus had finished putting the distinctive bones in a pile, he opened his bag wide and showed them all in, then counted them. When he was certain he had all of them, he took a deep breath and began to think.

"Ok," he began. "I've got my special attack, I've got my regular attacks, I am wearing my "battle body", and I have my books and comics in my backpack right here. Is there anything I'm missing? And before you ask, yes I remember my phone."

"Well, I am not omnipotent or whatever," replied his brother. "But I think you got everything."

Then, as if that sentence was a signal, there came a loud knock on the front door, and with it, a voice with a strange accent that was very familiar to Papyrus, that shouted.

"Wakie, wakie, you boneheads. We are here. You have 10 minutes. If you are not out by then, we will leave without you as we agreed."

It was if a massive pit had suddenly formed Papyrus' metaphysical stomach.

"He's here," he said anxiously. "Oh, my gods. Mickey is here, in Snowdin. And at… our… house."

He then rushed to Sans, put his hands on his shoulders and stared him straight into his eye sockets.

"Oh gods, this feeling, it's too much," he said and began to shake. "I can't do this. The pressure is too much."

Sans had no real idea of how to calm someone on the verge of freaking out, but he tried to do his best for his little brother.

"All right bro, just calm down," he said. "Just breathe in and relax."

"Oh gods I can't take it," said Papyrus. "Can you go answer the door? I'll just stay here and wait."

"Bro, if the pressure is getting to you, we can open it together ok?"

There was another knock on the door, and the same voice shouted:

"Hey, what's the fucking hold up. I know you are awake. I can hear your voices."

Papyrus then looked at the front door and took a deep breath.

"Y'know what," he began. "No. This is my day, and I will open the door alone."

And so, Papyrus began to conquer his pressure and headed towards the door. Then he put his hands on the knob and paused for a moment. He then heard another voice talking behind the door.

"What if he's not coming?" asked the new voice.

"Oh, he will," said the familiar voice. "Trust me."

With that, Papyrus braved himself and thrust open the door, and was then greeted by a marvellous sight. In front of him stood 2 monsters clad in the official armour of The Royal Hunt. The armours had a certain aspect to them that made them stand out immensely among the crowds. To Papyrus and most monsters, they looked like black angels that came from far above. The platemail looked very expensive and master crafted, and was almost completely black, which meant that it would be hard to spot them in the dark. Complementing the black colour scheme were dark brown leather gloves with black fur, and they were covered by metal platings on top. The boots followed a similar suit, in that they were made of the same type of leather and black fur with some metal plaitings on top. There was also a large black hood, to cover up their head. There were also multiple runes and symbols carved in incredible detail on every plate and leather, the most notable which was the carving of The Royal Hunt insignia that was painted on the chestplate.

But the most notable thing about the set, which was considered iconic by many monsters, was the helmets. Or masks, as they are more rightly called. They appeared to be made of solid black metal and featured a very detailed sculpture of the blank looking expression of a creature that resembled a monkey, with small lips, angry looking eyebrows, and cold, dead looking eyes. The only holes on the masks were the ones for the eyes, nose and mouth of the wearer. These masks were said to be a reflection of humanity, as a constant reminder to every monster of their true enemy.

The 2 monsters that were dressed in the aforementioned armour were of similar height, but they had completely different builds so that it was easy to tell them apart. Not only that, the skinny one had a hairy tail, dangling from his back end. The one that was slightly taller and more muscular was obviously Mickey, as he had the build larger than life aura as Papyrus had seen before. On the other hand, the one with the tail was very skinny and hunched over. Papyrus knew who he was, as he knew the names and look of almost every member of The Royal Hunt. He was an ape monster like Mickey and a powerful sorcerer. He was a very quiet person and had very rarely spoken a word in public, hence why no one knew what his real name was except for maybe other members of The Royal hunt, and so he was dubbed by the public as "Quiet Willy." There were theories that he was a mute, but since there was no other person around that could have possibly been chatting with Mickey, Papyrus was certain that this theory was now put to rest.

Papyrus was shaking. He couldn't believe it, but right in front of him stood 2 famous warriors that he was a massive fan of. This was too good to be true, and he almost believed he was dreaming. If this was a dream, then he did not want to wake up. Not in hundreds of years.

"Ahh, you're awake," said Mickey. "Good, that's very good indeed."

Papyrus was stunned, and could barely utter a word.

"Sha-shall, we go now?" was all he could mutter.

Mickey chuckled in reply.

"Relax, relax," said Mickey. "Don't get hasty now ok? The hunt won't officially start until later today. We have plenty of time to wait."

Sans stood in the living room and listened curiously to this conversation.

"Hey I was thinking," said Mickey. "Since we have some time, could you invite us in? It's cold out here, and there's nothing to do. Besides, you have plenty of space, right?"

Papyrus froze even harder.

"I...uhh...I-" he muttered.

"Sure, come on in," said Sans. Even though Papyrus would normally be annoyed in his brother answering for him, this time, he was more than grateful.

"Great," said Mickey and then looked at his silent compatriot.

"Hey, Wills?" Mickey said to him. "Stay outside and watch my back. If you see anyone acting suspiciously then, well... do whatever you want with them."

With that, Mickey went inside and closed the door, leaving the silent monkey outside.

"Isn't it kind of a dick move to leave him out alone in the cold like that?" asked Sans.

"Nah, it's fine," said Mickey. "His ancestors lived in tundras and high upon mountain peaks. Cold is in their blood. Besides, he's used to worse things."

"He seemed kind of annoyed though."

"That's his thing. He's always annoyed."

"Well, if he's ok with it, then fine by me," said Sans. "By the by, you can stay here as long as you need. Just… don't let me catch you being up to some funny monkey business, all right?"

Mickey did not laugh at Sans' attempt at a "joke". He looked somewhat insulted, despite being covered head to toe in armour. Then he squatted by the small skeleton so that the masks dead looking eyes stared deep into Sans' eye sockets.

"So," said Mickey. "I'm guessing you're the funny one, huh?"

He leaned in closer and his mask was now almost touching Sans.

"Geez," said Sans. "You're getting a little personal here don't ya think?"

Sans starting to feel uncomfortable, and he was certain that if Mickey didn't have a mask on, he would be able to feel his breath.

But then Mickey chuckled lightly and put his hand on Sans' shoulder like a gentle father educating his child.

"Nah, it's okay, its okay," he said calmly. "Humor is a good thing. Especially in these grim times."

Then he let go of Sans shoulder and stood up.

"Nice place you got here," he said. "Looks much better than the glorified piles of wood outside at least."

As he said that, Mickey pulled down his hood and removed his mask, meaning that Sans became one of the few monsters to glance at his ape-like face.

"No offence," said Mickey, who sounded more relaxed. "But, why the hell did you move to this shitpile of a town anyway, considering you are the son of, y'know?"

"Ehh, the rents cheap," said Sans.

Mickey appeared somewhat doubtful.

"Hmmm, yeah," he said and then turned to face Papyrus. "All right Pappy. You've got anything to say or are you just going to be like my old mum who does nothing but stare at a wall all day?"

With that, Papyrus finally woke from his daze like a hypnotist had released him from his spell.

"Oh, I uh," was all he could mutter..

"Good, you're still with us it seems," said Mickey.

"Umm, I… Uh just wanted to say that uh."

Suddenly, it was like a burst of energy filled every bone and crevice within the excited skeleton as countless questions and sentences filled his mind.

"OH MY GOD. YOU ACTUALLY CAME HERE. WOWIE. I CAN'T BELIEVE IT. I MEAN I CAN BELIEVE IT SINCE I EXPECTED IT, BUT THE FACT THAT IT'S HAPPENING IS SO AMAZING. AND WAS THAT WILLY. IS HE REALLY MUTE? I MEAN OF COURSE I KNOW HE ISN'T CAUSE I HEARD YOU TALKING WITH HIM, BUT CAN I AT LEAST SPEAK TO H-."

"Y'know, just shut up for a bit ok?" Mickey said softly. "Save these questions for the trip."

Papyrus would normally want to know the answers right away, but since Mickey was someone he respected a lot, he decided to comply.

"All right," said Papyrus. "But I am just so excited that I can't keep it in. How long should I have to wait? Can't we just go now? Please?"

"Yeah, sure why not."

"Wait," said Sans. "Didn't you just say that it wouldn't start until later today?"

"Yeah I did, so?" asked Mickey. "Did you really think I was going to stay here all morning? I just wanted to see the house is all. Besides, the other members are waiting in camp way down in the woods and they must be getting cold and restless."

While that reply made Sans somewhat suspicious, it mad Papyrus' metaphysical heart skip a beat.

"Wait, other members?" he asked. So it wasn't just him, Mickey and Willy on this hunt?

"Yeah, you heard right," said Mickey smiling.

"Oh my god," said Papyrus audibly. He was going to meet the other members of The Royal Hunt. This day was getting better and better.

"Anyway bonehead," began Mickey. "You've got everything ready? Because we are not coming back until Monday morning."

"Oh right, just let me check," said Papyrus as he began to scramble through his backpack and pockets. "All right let me see. I have my special attack ready, no thanks to you SANS, I gave my books, my comics, my phone, and-"

"Oh right, I forgot to mention," said Mickey, interrupting Papyrus. "You should leave your phone behind."

"Why not?" asked Sans. If he had eyebrow he would raise one in confusion.

Mickey shrugged.

"Just safety precautions is all," he said. "Never know when you might be tracked or something."

"Isn't that a bit too paranoid?" asked Sans.

"Maybe," said Mickey. "But it's better to be safe than sorry."

"But what if I wanna call my brother to inform him of our quest?" asked Papyrus.

"I dunno," said Mickey. "Just borrow one from a hobo or something. Practically everyone has phones these days. Wouldn't be hard to find someone willing to lend for a while."

Sans wasn't sure about this anymore. A hunch told him that something was off.

"All right," he said. "I guess you are the boss after all. You must know what's best after all."

Mickey looked at him for a while, like he was analyzing something.

"Yeah that's right," he said with a tinge of authority in his voice.

There was an awkward silence for a while, and the trio just stood there staring at each other. It wasn't until after about 10 seconds passed when Papyrus decided to break the silence.

"Ok, can we go now?" he asked. "This is starting to get a bit weird."

"Yeah, sure," said Mickey. "Don't want to keep the others waiting."

Mickey then headed to the front door, while Papyrus reluctantly put his phone on the living room table, next to Sans book of jokes.

"Y'know," said Sans who was now standing by the front door. "Is it really a good idea to shave so much of your fur like that? If it wasn't for those tentacles, I would have assumed you were a human."

Hearing him say that, Mickey turned around and faced Sans, while looking even more insulted. But then he chuckled and just smiled.

"Yeah," he said. "Everyone says that to me."

"Well," said Sans. "If it's any consolation, I won't tell anyone about your look."

"Yeah, that's good," said Mickey and then he put the metal mask back on and then he pulled the black hood over his head and tentacles. "Very good indeed."

"All right," began Sans. "Hope you have fun in your gorilla warfare."

Mickey chuckled in response to his awful "joke".

"God that's awful," he said and then pointed at Sans. "I'm gonna get you for that one day, y'know?"

"Can't wait," replied Sans jokingly

"All right Papyrus you sack of bones," shouted Mickey. "You ready?"

"Of course," said Papyrus and then headed to the front door. "I have been ready my whole life."

"Great, I guess we are going now."

Mickey then opened the front door and he and Papyrus went outside. Willy still stood there, almost trembling. Then they began their walk while Sans stood outside and watched from afar.

"All right, have fun bro!" shouted Sans when his brother was a bit far away.

"I WILL," Papyrus shouted back. "WHEN YOU SEE ME AGAIN ON MONDAY, YOU WILL BE GLANCING NOT ONLY UPON YOUR BROTHER BUT ON A HERO AS WELL."

"Looking forward to it," shouted Sans.

Papyrus smiled, turned around, and they continued their walk.

"I am so excited for this," he said to Mickey. "This is going to be one amazing weekend."

Mickey laughed.

"I promise you," he said confidently. "This is going to be a hunt to remember".

"Yeah," said Papyrus then looked at Willy.

"I know you don't speak much," he began. "But my gods, I have so many questions. When did you join The Royal Hunt? Is your name actually Willy? Is it true that you beat Vissie using only a-"

When the group had walked into the forest, Sans lost sight of them and so he headed back into the house. After he closed the front door, the house was filled with dead silence. Something that was normally unusual at this time of the hour.

"Something feels off," Sans said to himself. Then he headed to his room and began his research.

…

Many hours had passed, and Sans was home alone, sitting on the couch, watching whatever was on tv. He had previously spent about an hour researching The Royal Hunt online but in the end, he was relieved when he found nothing online that indicated anything malicious about this group. If anything, everything he found showed the complete opposite. Monsters seemed to love this group, almost as much as The Royal Hunt in fact. There were articles, fan sites, and pages and pages of comments saying nothing but positive things about them.

So in the end, Sans came to the conclusion that he was just paranoid. Mickey may have been rude and vulgar, but that doesn't make one necessarily evil. Besides, there wouldn't be any good reason for King Asgore himself to give this group his support and blessing if there wasn't anything good about it.

In other words, for one of the few times in his life, Sans was happy to be wrong. He was anxious for a while that he may have unintentionally encouraged his brother to join some sort of glorified bandit group, but if he couldn't find anything vicious about them online, then that most likely meant that there wasn't anything vicious to report.

After that relieving revelation, he headed back to his job at his hotdog stand with great delight. Some of his regular customers noticed his increased enthusiasm from normal, but none of them questioned him about it. Mostly because they had places to be, or that they considered what free time they had from their difficult job too short to waste on idle chit-chat.

When it was afternoon, he called it enough for today and returned home. This was the first time he had ever spent an entire evening home alone in this house without his brother.

There was barely anything interesting to watch on the TV, just reruns of old shows and boring movies about the robot Mettaton.

"Gods, this is boring," Sans said to himself.

After a while, he had enough and reached for the remote and turned off the TV. Sans realized that he wasn't going to waste his first night alone on doing something so mundane and uninteresting.

"Alrighty then," he said to himself. "What to do, what to do…"

Sans thought long and hard for a few seconds on what to do next. He had this evening and an entire day to do whatever he wanted without having to worry about his brother much. When he came up blank, he gave up and just decided what he usually did when he had free time and extra cash.

"Screw this, I'm going to Grillby's," he announced to himself.

He then stood up and headed to the front door.

"Papyrus, you want anything?" he asked as he opened the door. There was no reply, unsurprisingly.

"Oh right," said Sans feeling like a moron, and then headed outside.

…

Snowdin was one of the few towns and settlements that suffered the worst after the war. A lot of money that was used in it came from Snowdin, and about a half of the adult citizens in Snowdin either took some part in the fighting, or a had a relative who fought on either side. Before the war, Snowdin was a quaint and peaceful little town that stood in the edge of the cold and frozen part of the underground kingdom. It still stands there but is now a hollow husk of its former self. Most of the stores have been closed down, and the school has barely enough cash or staff to support it. Many of the houses have been broken down and essentially replaced by a pile of woods, while many that still stood had become crumbling relics of a passing age. The only house that still stood as it did in the olden days was the one on the edge of town that belonged to Sans and his brother. It belonged to their father, before he became the Royal Scientist and moved to the Capital, hence why there was an apparent extra care put into preserving this house by the Royal Court, much to the jealousy of other townsfolk, so that this 2 story house, which looked like most other houses in the Capital, was like a fancy mansion compared to the rest.

But besides his obviously fatherly relation to it, Sans wasn't completely sure himself as to why he decided to move here of all places with his brother after they could no longer stand living with their father. He mostly guessed that it was possibly due to the fact that he wanted to live somewhere that was both cheap and practical, and since monster that took over after their father moved died of a sudden stroke, it was if there arrived the perfect opportunity to have the place that held all those qualities, and also a good way to make a final insult to their distant and uncaring father before moving out. They still had to pay rent of course, and Sans was still mad at his father for not leaving them with any of his plentiful cash before moving out, but in such a poor town, rent was fortunately very cheap, and he could mostly pay it with the pocket money he got from his unlicensed hot dog stand.

Whatever excess cash he had left, he would sometimes waste on some books for his brother or computer stuff for himself, but mostly, he used on food to buy food from Grillby's, the only restaurant and bar that still stood in town, for him and his brother. It is true that skeleton monsters don't need food to survive, but eating is still a pleasure to some of them, and it is a good way to lose any leftovers since every food that enters a skeleton mouth seems to completely evaporate from the face of the earth.

…

Normally, Sans wouldn't bother walking to his location and instead, he would his "shortcut" ability and teleport to his location. Tonight, however, he was in a good mood, and it wasn't like Grillby's place was far away. Besides, he thought it a good idea to have a little exercise as a change of pace.

While walking to Grillby's, Sans began to ponder what happens to the food he ate. After he failed to come up with a decent hypothesis, he decided to abandon such a difficult question for the time being, and instead put his brain power and energy into taking in the Snowdin atmosphere for one. One thing he admired about the Snowdin monsters, was that despite how hard things could get, most of them weren't afraid to look on the bright side. Even after this town went to the litter, you could still find everyday kids and adults just living their lives and making the best of a bad situation. There were currently child monsters dressed in tattered clothes happily playing in the snowy streets while an old widow wearing the only clothes she could afford watched them and smiled, and every adult Sans passed gave him a polite greeting. Sans and his brother were known by most of the townsfolk, and despite the envy some of them, there was still much attempt to be courteous and kind whenever they arrived.

He was now by the tiny wooden house that stood near his home, and he stopped to examine it. He rarely ever looked at this house up close, since he always just teleported past it. In the garden of this quaint little house, there were two small blue slime blobs with tattered hats playing with wooden sticks.

"Stand back Undyne!" said the one with the torn cap who had a boyish voice. "I am the great Mickey, and you cannot hope to defeat me!"

"You think so?" said the other one, who sounded girlish and had a pink cap. "I am Undyne, The Spear of Justice, and I have to come to take back what is mine."

"Try my, fish lady."

And then two small blobs began their epic battle and fought playfully with their wooden sticks.

"Heh, kids," Sans said to himself and continued his way to Grillby's.

After about few minutes, he had arrived at the Grillby's. Like most buildings in towns, this restaurant slash bar had seen better days. The sign on the outside wall was broken, and a couple of letters were missing so that it said GR LL Y. The walls seemed like they were slowly crumbling, and the windows were boarded up with wooden planks, as the owner clearly couldn't afford to fix their broken windows. Before Sans went inside, he happened to glance at a malnourished bear monster who sat inside a broken tent in the alley on the side of Grillby's. He was dressed in tattered clothes and was currently drinking from a bottle of whiskey. Sans had heard of this poor old bear before. His name was Ferdinand and was perhaps the most unfortunate person in this unfortunate town. He had recently lost all his family and belongings, and so had to result to begging. Sans had also heard in passing, that apparently the townsfolk had nicknamed him as "Politics Bear". Sans had no idea why, and like most things, he didn't bother finding it out.

"Ey ey, uh what," Sans heard Ferdinand say in the empty air, who was clearly drunk and unable to comprehend anything around him.

Sans felt pity for this poor monster and wanted to make it up for him somehow. He headed towards him.

"Ey, hey you," slobbered up Ferdinand when he noticed Sans nearing his tent. "Don't come near my house you. Just don't."

When Sans had arrived in front of him, he reached into his pocket and took out some shiny coins.

"Here," he said. "Keep the change."

But as soon as Sans put out his hand to drop the coins in Ferdinand's tiny coin bucket, the drunk bear quickly seized the wrist of the skeleton's bony arm.

"Live your life while you can, young man," said Ferdinand, and Sans could smell his whiskey induced breath. "The dogs, they're gonna hunt us down, and then they'll eat us alive."

"Let go of me," commanded Sans while trying to tear his arm away.

"They'll eat us," said the bear. "They'll eat you."

After a while, Sans managed to rip his hand from the bear's grasp.

"Geez dude," said Sans. "I was just trying to do a nice thing for you."

Ferdinand laughed in response.

"That nicety will tear you apart sooner than the others," he said. "It'll lure the dogs to ya."

Sans didn't know what to make of this, so he just shrugged.

"Well," he said. "Have it your way then."

Sans then turned around and headed towards the entrance of the bar.

"They'll eat ya!" the bear shouted after him. "They'll tear you apart like woods in a grinder."

"Yeah, yeah," said Sans as he headed inside.

The interior of the building was not too fancy either. The walls were filled with tearing old wallpapers, and they were dirty and filled with food stains. The wooden floor looked rotting, and every step gave out a loud creaking sound. Tables and chairs were also made of pure wood, but they were very unpolished and could easily give of a splinter. The air was thick and putrid, with a heavy concentration of grease. Many would count it a blessing that the windows were broken, otherwise, the heat and heavy air would have most likely been completely unbearable.

The bar was filled with the usual customers that Sans would have expected to see at this time of the hour.

"Evening Sans!" they all almost shouted in unison, like they almost always did when they saw him arrive.

"Hi fellas!" Sans shouted back like he always did.

On a chair by the counter sat another regular visitor. She wasn't a customer per say, but Sans had still seen her in the bar here and there. The monster was a green little fire elemental named Fuku, and she couldn't have been older than 13. She was Grillby's daughter, and Sans had no idea who the mother was if she had any. Grillby couldn't afford to get her into a proper school, so instead, she had to be homeschooled. Grillby also needed to focus on his job, so the Fuku could be seen daily on the counter, scribbling down on papers and her notebook. Grillby was currently standing behind the counter, cleaning a dirty glass with an almost equally dirty napkin.

Sans went to the counter and sat down on his favourite chair.

"Evening Sans," said the orange fire elemental. "I'm guessing the usual?"

"Yes and no," said Sans. "This time just make it a single order."

"So just a single cheeseburger, single packet of ketchup and single batch of fries then?"

"You know me so well."

With that, Grillby went into the kitchen and began cooking.

"Damm," said Sans as he was checking his pockets. "Forgot my phone."

Deciding not to bother wasting his energy on teleporting, he decided to instead do something else to bide his time. Fortunately for him, Grillby was never too long with his usual orders, and since it was split in half today, he would be faster than usual.

The bar was filled with the sounds of monsters chatting with each other. A couple of them sat on a table that was close enough to Sans so that he could hear their conversation.

"-and I'm telling you," said a monster that looked like a donkey. "It's the only thing that makes sense."

"That King Asgore has lost it?" asked a female monster that looked like a hare.

"I know it sounds crazy," continued the donkey. "But why else would he seemingly not care that everything has gone to shit? He has lost not just both his children, but his wife as well. Do have any idea what that high amount of grief can do to a monster."

"He has not lost it," said an old bird monster who sat nearby. The donkey and the hare turned around to look at him.

"Why not," asked the donkey.

The old bird chuckled.

"It's true that grief can massively change a monster," said the bird. "But Asgore was just not any monster."

The bird then paused to take a swig from his glass of beer.

"I remember him very well," he continued. "He was a kind monster, and incredibly strong-willed. Even after many tragedies, Asgore would stand strong not just for himself, but for us as well."

"Then how do you explain all this then?" asked the donkey.

The bird did not respond just yet.

"He's dead," he finally said after a while and took another swig. The donkey looked perplexed by this suggestion.

"Don't you think we would have known by now if that were the case?"

The old bird shrugged.

"Maybe, maybe not," he said. "Maybe there's a reason for it. Maybe they don't want us to give up hope."

"Then who the hell is ruling over us."

The bird shrugged again.

Maybe the Royal court," he suggested. "Maybe some secret heir we haven't heard about. What I am absolutely certain is that Asgore was not someone who would easily fall into madness."

After that, the bird, donkey and hare began a large back and forth argument, and Sans lost interest. Shortly after, Grillby arrived from the kitchen with a plate with dirty burger and fries.

He then placed it on the counter and began to carefully pack it in. While doing it, Grillby looked at Sans with a proud expression.

"You seem happier than usual," noted the flaming bartender.

"Ehh it's nothing special," replied Sans. "You seem just as cool as well, no pun intended."

Grillby smiled.

"I just meant that I haven't seen you this happy before," said Grillby. "I assume something good just happened?"

Sans wasn't planning on staying here for long, but he thought that he might as well share what happened.

"Well, don't mean to brag but yeah something great just happened," he began. "My brother just got his dream job."

"Oh well that's great," said Grillby. "Good to hear."

"Yeah and get this."

Sans the raised his voice so that the entire bar would hear him.

"You may have been wondering why a couple of Royal Huntsmen were in town earlier. Well, that's because Papyrus is joining them. My brother is going to become a Royal Huntsman."

After he said that, something happened that Sans did not expect in the least. It was if time had suddenly stopped, because all of the commotions and loud noises coming from all around him immediately came to a halt, and before he knew it, every monster in the bar had stopped at what they were doing and began looking in horror and shock in his direction.

"Oh," said Grillby, sounding disappointed. "Ok then."

Sans was very confused. He expected a reply that was something more along the lines of "wow really?" or "you're brothers a Royal Huntsman? That's awesome" and if not, at least some sort of lacklustre praise from Grillby or other monsters pretending to care. Instead, the reply he got from not just Grillby, but everyone around him was mostly silence. Complete and utter silence.

Sans looked around the bar to look for any hint of sanity and the only thing he got was faces of sadness, surprise and fear like he had just informed everyone that they were all going to die.

"Did I say something wrong?" he asked.

Then there were murmurs and whispers that the monsters began making amongst themselves. Sans managed to only catch a couple of them. They said:

"They have another one? And him of all monsters?"

"It such a shame. I always thought he was such a good kid."

"If they have got him on their side then that's bad. Real bad."

This was all making Sans feel incredibly uncomfortable, so he decided to do something about it.

"Geez, is this a funeral?" he jokingly asked. "You guys should lighten up more. Like Grillby and his kid."

Still, there was no response.

"Uhh, should I leave?" he said. "If that's what you want then that's all right. Hell, I am a skeleton. I don't really need any food."

Suddenly, Sans felt like something odd was happening behind him where Grillby stood. He looked back at the counter and saw Grillby hurryingly packing down Sans' order like he had only a few seconds to spare.

"Are you ok big guy," asked Sans while looking back at Grillby. "You look a little heated."

Hearing that, Grillby began to laugh uncontrollably in a panicked voice, like he was in immense danger and it was the funniest joke in the world.

"Gee," said Sans. "It wasn't that funny."

Grillby chuckled nervously.

"No really," said Grillby in a panicky voice. "This was a really funny joke is all. Really funny. Your funniest joke yet."

"Well, thanks then."

Sans looked around and noticed that every monster was still looking at him.

"Uhh Grills?" he asked worryingly. "What's going on?"

But before Sans could get out another word, Grillby had finished with his burger and fries and then he let it slide across the table to Sans.

"Just take it," said Grillby, still panicking. "You don't have to pay for it, just take it. Also, forget about paying your tab as well. In fact, you no longer have to pay me anything from here on out"

"Well, gee thanks," Said Sans. At least there is some silver lining to all this weirdness, he thought to himself. But still, this type of charity was pretty out of character for Grillby, a monster who is so normally strict and serious about paying back.

"Grills?" asked Sans. "Don't you think you are going a bit too far?"

"Too far?" asked Grillby. "Nonsense. Do you want anything to drink as well? You can pick whatever you want from the shelf. Want this expensive bourbon that's over 80 years old? Absolutely, go ahead. In fact, I'll even allow you to take the entire shelf if you want.

"I-I don't want anything to drink," said Sans. "Grillby are you sure you're ok?"

"Great, if you have decided that you have everything you want, then you have everything you want."

"Ok, I think I am going to leave now-"

"Great, come back whenever you want. Grillby's is always open for any member or close relative of a member of The Royal Hunt. Gods bless those brave and heroic men and women."

Confused and somewhat frightened, Sans picked up his order and headed outside, while the eyes of every monster watched him go outside.

When Sans left the bar and the greasy atmosphere from inside was replaced by the cold and chilly Snowdin air, he looked inside the window and saw Grillby give a sigh of relief while comforting his daughter who looked almost as scared as him.

"What the hell just happened?" Sans asked himself.

With that, he decided to head home. He was immensely bothered by what happened in the bar. All of that craziness happened after he had told them his brother was joining The Royal Hunt. Did something happen with that group that he didn't know about?

On his way home, he looked back on the small house where the two slime kids were playing earlier. They were still there but now an even bigger slime with a fake moustache had arrived towards them

"Kids!" said the big slime sounding extremely worried. "What the hell do you think you are you doing?"

"We are just playing a game dad," said boyish slime. "We were just playing as Mickey and-"

"Don't!" said the big slime. "Don't ever use his name for games and such, and don't let anyone ever hear you speak any ill of him. In fact, from here on out, you two don't speak about him at all."

"But dad…"

"DON'T. If I see you use his name in vain ever again, I am sending you to your room."

With that said, the big slime hurried inside the house while his kids looked somewhat annoyed.

"Geez, what's his problem?" Sans asked himself and continued on his way. But there was one thing about that strange situation which bothered him almost as much as what happened at Grillby's earlier. It was the tone of voice that came from the father slime. It wasn't one of insult in a "how dare you to speak ill of this holy name" kind of way. But rather, the tone was that of worry and fear, like his kids were on the verge of almost falling off a cliff. Then again, Sans does remember jokingly insulting Mickey a few times when he was at their house earlier today and he wasn't that angry about it. Or at least, that's how it seemed like.

There was clearly something bad about, The Royal Hunt, something he missed, and he was going to find out what.

…

When he got home, he spent the next couple of hours to once again look up everywhere on the monster web about The Royal Hunt and its members. He was certain he missed something but not only did it seem near impossible to find out what, but what he found even stranger, was that he discovered that there was unusually little info he could find about The Royal Hunt in general. It wasn't that strange that a group so high up would keep some things classified, but you would think that with such a highly esteemed group that had existed for years and were akin to celebrities, would have tons of info online regardless, even on just a single member. But as it stood, most of what he found were articles and other internet stuff that was just praising the group and going on and on about their heroism and greatness.

"This makes no sense," Sans said to himself.

He looked at the time. It was the middle of the night here in Snowdin. Normally he would be asleep at this point, but he decided to forgo his laziness for tonight because he was certain that something was wrong, and he was worried that he might have sent his brother somewhere without proper precursors.

There has to be something, he thought to himself. No group can possibly have people this scared unless something bad has happened.

But then, something just clicked with him. It was a theory, that although stretching it, would explain the lack of info, the secrecy, and the dissonance between what he read online versus how every monster seemed to react to simply hearing their names.

Most of the things he found and read sounded suspiciously similar to… propaganda. What if it was?

What if the reason he could find so little about this group, was because most of the info about them online was deleted and censored?

What if... everything he knew and heard about The Royal Hunt… was a lie?

As Sans began considering this possibility, there was a knock on his door. The sudden noise completely blew him off his train of thought. It was the middle of the night. Who in the world would want to visit him at this time of the hour?

"Who's there!" shouted Sans.

There was no reply, and after a while, there was another knock.

Maybe he didn't hear me, Sans thought to himself.

He then stood up from his chair and left his room. When was by the stairs, there was another knock.

"All right, who's there?" he again shouted. Once again there was no reply, besides another knock on the door. This one was harder and louder than the last two.

"Calm down, I'm coming," shouted Sans.

Sans slowly walked down the stairs, while knocking kept getting louder and harder. When he stood by the entrance, he could hear what sounded like soft crying behind the door.

"Who's there," he asked anxiously. There came another knock, and this one was so hard, Sans swore that the door almost fell off its hinges.

"Ok whoever you are," said Sans. "You are being very rude."

Sans then opened the door to see who was on the other side.

"You are lucky I was awake. You could have woken me… up….you ... know?"

Sans was in shock at to whom he saw. Behind the door stood Papyrus. Or… rather someone who looked like Papyrus. He was dressed in Papyrus' battle body, and he even had the same build and height, but the aura he gave was like the complete opposite of the cherry and excited skeleton Sans had gotten used to the past couple of days. Instead, this skeleton's face was filled with complete shock and disbelief. He might as well have been an empty husk.

"Papyrus?" said Sans. "Did I accidentally oversleep for 2 days? I thought you wouldn't come home until Monday morning."

The figure did not reply, and instead, he walked quietly inside, seemingly unable to notice his brother.

"Papy?"

Sans was starting to get incredibly worried. He had never seen his brother like this. In fact, he had never seen anyone like this. For maybe the first time in a long while, Sans was at a complete loss as to what to do.

When he was inside, Papyrus proceded to removed his gauntlets and just let them fall unceremoniously on the floor.

"Papyrus did something happen?" asked Sans. Once again there was no response. The stranger that looked like his brother then began walking up the steps while at the same time tearing of his breastplate.

"Papyrus what happened?"

Something was clearly wrong, and Sans was now incredibly worried.

"What's happened? Were you rejected? Did you fail the test?"

For the first time, this stranger seemed to acknowledge Sans' presence. Halfway up the stairs, he stopped. He turned around, and looked at his brother, and spoke for the first time.

"I…I don't know…," was all he said.

Then he turned back around and took off his breastplate. He then let it fall on the stairs like it was garbage he had lost complete interest. He then headed up the stairs, while proceeding to unbuckle his belt. Sans began following him up the stairs. But then he stopped to examine the breastplate after he glanced at something strange about it.

There's a bunch snow on it, he thought.

But then he took a closer look and was terribly shocked by what he discovered. It wasn't snow. It was dust. The breastplate… was covered in dust.

No, Sans thought to himself. He couldn't have.

He hurryingly went after his brother who was currently in his room.

"Papyrus what happened?"

He refused to believe it. He refused to believe that his brother had actually done something so heinous. There had to be another explanation for this. He believed that his brother didn't have the heart for it.

When he finally arrived upstairs, he saw his brother just standing in his room, completely naked, while his armoured boots and pants, and the black wool bodysuit that he had underneath his battle body, lay disorganized all over the floor the floor.

"Bro?"

There was no response.

"Bro it's ok," said Sans. "Just talk to me ok? You are kind of freaking me out."

Papyrus head jerked a bit, and Sans heard a strange sound coming from him.

"Papyrus?"

Sans slowly walked up to his brother, while carefully attempting to not step on any of the discarded armour pieces.

"It's ok bro," he said while reaching to touch his brother. "It's just… you are acting kind of weird. If you won't tell me anything, then I'm not sure if I can help-"

Suddenly, the tall skeleton quickly turned around and stared down at his brother.

Papyrus' eye sockets were filled with water, that leaked out and ran down his bony cheeks. He was crying.

"Oh Papyrus," said Sans. "What the hell happened back t-"

Before he finished his sentence, Papyrus launched himself at him and embraced his brother in a big hug. He started sobbing again, and Sans felt the tears run down his back.

"Bro it's ok, its ok," he said.

Papyrus did not reply, and instead just continued crying. When about half a minute of embrace had passed, Papyrus let go of his brother, and silently walked over to his car-bed. Then he slowly laid down, and then pulled his blanket over his skeletal body.

"Ok," said Sans. "We'll talk about this tomorrow ok?"

Papyrus didn't respond. Sans then headed outside and closed the door.

Sans wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do, but his brother seemed to want to be alone, so he left him to rest undisturbed.

Sans spent the rest of the night looking as much as he could online but once again, he came up blank. After a while, he gave up and laid down on his bed.

His mind was filled with many worrying thoughts that night, and whenever managed press them away for a bit, he would notice the sounds of his brother sobbing in the next room, like a constant reminder of his terrible mistakes.


	5. Chapter 3

_Part 3: The Hunt_

Sans had no idea how much sleep he managed to get. It couldn't be by much though, as when he was awoken by his alarm clock, he was even more tired than he usually was each morning. As he lazily stood up from his bed, countless thoughts began haunting his mind. The events from last night, where his brother arrived home unexpectedly and in shock, still lingered in his mind. How anyone could forget such a series of disconcerting moments, Sans had no idea. After he stood up from the bed, Sans dressed up in his usual clothes he wore every day, scratched his bony bum and went to wake up his brother. His brother was already awake when Sans arrived. Papyrus was sitting in his car-bed, still naked, and looking down on the floor while folding his arms together.

"Didn't sleep tonight either?" asked Sans.

Papyrus didn't say anything, but he nodded his head in shame. Sans stood there is silence. It just dawned on him on unusually quiet this morning was.

"You should get some rest," he calmly said. "Just… come down when you are ready, ok?"

Papyrus didn't answer. Sans then walked out of his room and carefully closed the door. When it was clear no one was looking, Sans put his hands on his face, and let himself slide down on the floor.

"What do I do? What do I do?" he muttered to himself.

Throughout all his life, Sans had never seen someone he knew be so… traumatized. And to make it worse, this was his little brother of all monsters. Someone that expected him to know and help with anything. But for the first time in years, Sans was almost completely stumped.

…

About half an hour later, the broken skeleton finally got the minimal strength he required to get up from his car-bed and get himself ready. He didn't bother to gather all the pieces of his battle body as he had lost all passion for it. He instead dressed up in the blue nightgown laying in the closet that he hadn't worn for a long time, and so had been left to wither and gather dust through the years. After he was dressed in the dirty nightgown, he slumbered downstairs to the kitchen which was still piled up with the bones from yesterday morning. His brother was there, standing by the kitchen table which held two bowls, a jar of milk, and a large box of a very familiar oatmeal brand.

"Sup bro," Sans said. "Got you your favourite food I had to shortcut my way all the way to waterfall of all places just to get a single box."

He then pointed to the oatmeal box, which had the same familiar food mascot on it.

"Dinosaur egg oatmeal," his brother said cheerfully. "That's your favourite right."

Papyrus forced himself a little smile. He was right. It really was his favourite.

Papyrus glanced at the kitchen clock. The time in Snowdin was right over noon. Normally in this moment of the day, Papyrus would be yelling at his brother for not being at his job that properly started hours ago, but today, he could barely muster up the will to care. Instead he just silently walked through the pile of bones and sat down on his favourite chair.

"Do you want me to pour it for you," asked his brother.

Papyrus didn't reply, just stared at the table in silence.

"Eh, why not?" said Sans and poured some oatmeal into his brother's bowl.

...

Sans felt a tinge of guilt and blame for his little brother's state. He suspected that something was up with the Royal Hunt, and if he had only done some searching sooner, he probably would have never encouraged his brother that much.

He looked at his brother before he began pouring milk on his own bowl of oatmeal. Whatever happened last night, must have been truly dreadful, and there was not much that could have traumatized his brother that way. While he had his suspicions, he hoped they were not true.

Papyrus picked up his spoon lightly, and slowly took a piece from his oatmeal. He even chewed slowly.

"So," began Sans. "Do you want to talk about last night?"

Papyrus didn't respond, just took another spoonful and put it in his mouth and slowly chewed.

"Y'know, if you don't want to talk about it, it's fine," Sans said, trying to sound as gentle as he could. "It's just, I want to help you, bro. Whatever happened, it's easier to deal with it if you talk about it y'know."

Papyrus didn't respond, but seemingly lost interest in eating as he carefully dropped his spoon down on the bowl, letting it float along, slowly and uncaringly amongst the oatmeal and eggs.

"Papy," said Sans. "I want to help you. As best as I can, but I don't know if I can help you if I don't know what's going on."

Papyrus suddenly began sobbing a bit, which made Sans feel a bit like an asshole.

"Oh so sorry bro," he said. "I didn't mean to…"

Papyrus began to cry now.

I messed this up, Sans thought to himself.

"You know what?" Sans began. "I'm sorry ok? Let's just forget about this ok?"

Papyrus was still crying, although he managed to tone it down a bit.

Geez, never hire me for a therapist, Sans thought to himself.

After a while, Papyrus managed to calm down. When all was quiet in the house again, Sans began to think. He suddenly wanted something to eat. He looked at the oatmeal box.

Might as well have some, he thought.

With that, he took the other bowl and began to so slowly pour.

"They are all dead," Papyrus muttered between his dry tears. "All of them… are dead."

Sans stopped pouring and looked straight at his brother.

"Dead?" he asked worryingly. "Who's dead?"

Papyrus then burst out in another, bigger cry.

"All of them," he said. "And it's my… fault."

"The Royal Hunt?"

Are they really dead, Sans thought to himself. If they really were, then he did not know whether to be relieved or dismayed.

Papyrus looked up at his brother. Tears were running slowly down his cheekbones.

"No," he said. "Not them."

…

 _Yesterday_

This is the greatest day of my life, Papyrus thought to himself.

While this was just one other mission for most of the Royal Hunt, to him, this felt greater than ten birthdays combined. He was on a quest with some of the greatest warriors he knew, just like he dreamed and imagined. He couldn't be happier.

On their way through woods and to their undisclosed location, Papyrus, Mickey and Quiet Willy, met up with another famed Royal Hunter. Vissie the goblin, and like the rest of the Royal Hunt, Papyrus knew her by heart. She was a vicious and eccentric lady, and an ex-scientist and once a colleague to Papyrus' father before Papyrus was born, until one day when she went mad after a freak soul experiment which caused to perform some horrific actions that lead to her to spend years in jail, until she was moved to the capitals mental institution after she bit the prison wardens nose off. She was freed by Mickey, who wanted to use her skills and intellect for more useful purposes. Due to her unpredictable nature, Papyrus so far feared her more than anyone else in the group, and could only muster up the courage to ask her a few questions. Vissie was dressed in the usual Royal Hunters garb, and so the only identifying characteristics were her short height, the long mask specially made for her snout, and the slimy green tail coming from her back end.

Papyrus was the only one in the group not dressed in the iconic armour. When Mickey suggested he should wear it, Papyrus refused and specifically requested to wear his "battle body" in battle, claiming that he wanted the weekend to go exactly as he dreamed it would. Another reason, which he kept secret, was that he found the Huntsman armour to be a bit frightening. Mickey eventually agreed on his request, saying that it was fine since he wasn't a fully fledged member yet.

…

"Where are we going," asked Papyrus as they still ventured through the wood. "We seemed to have been aimlessly wandering for like an hour."

"Patience bonehead," reassured Mickey. "We are almost there."

Mickey wasn't far off, for only a few minutes later, they had arrived at the gathering place. It was in a small open field, with a dim fireplace in the centre.

"Ahh, we are here," said Mickey.

By the fire, there were two figures in the Royal Huntsman armour, one of average size, while the other figure looked bigger than anyone Papyrus had ever seen.

Those two were the ex-Royal Guardsmen, Umbla and Eldur. Umbla was like on the other end to Vissie when it came to size and might. Big Umbla they called her, and that name was no accident. She was the largest monster Papyrus had ever seen. Being part boar, part minotaur monster she towered over the rest of the group with her large plump body. While others considered her bigger and fatter than she has any right to be, she took her weight with pride. Like Papyrus, she wanted to become a Royal Guardsman ever since she was a little kid, but mostly, she just wanted to become like Undyne. But her dreams of growing up to become as strong as her idol mostly stemmed from her horrible childhood. She was born in the poor and unfortunate part of the capital. She had no siblings, her mother died when Umbla was an infant, and her father was very deadbeat and careless, and more often than not left her alone for most of the time. So instead, she was raised by the slums. By adulthood, she had become strong, massive and vicious. Almost too vicious in fact. It's rumoured that she once broke a poor monsters knees as a kid, with only her fist. When she grew to adulthood, she managed to join the Royal Guard, but after barely a year, Undyne kicked her out for being too reckless and cruel. After the Royal Guard disbanded, and the Royal Hunt rose from their ashes, she was one of the first ones to volunteer for this new group, which she seemingly did out of spite to Undyne, her ex-idol. Her Royal Huntsman armour was massive like her size, and her mask was specifically built with holes for her horns and tusk. But the most unique thing about her mask was that while the other ones had a dead almost expressionless face carved on it, she requested that her own mask would have a smile on it. No real reason was given, but Papyrus planned to question her constantly about it.

The other figure, Eldur, was a pureblood dragon monster, and the newest member of the Royal Hunt, having only joined just a few months ago. Not much is said about his childhood except it was very luxurious, with few trials and tribulations, which is rare for monsters outside the capital nowadays. Although he was also in the Royal Guard like Umblan, he managed to last longer and was one of the last to officially retire. Like the other Hunters, Eldur wore the standard Royal Huntsman armour, and similar to Vissie, he had some modification made on it for his snout, horns and tail.

These two monsters had chosen to arrive at the meeting place early, and wait for Mickey and the rest to arrive. Umbla sat by the fire, her mask of as she was eating meat from a large bowl, while Eldur sat opposite of her, where he was carving wood with his knife.

"Ahh finally," said Umbla as she threw bowl away behind, and put her mask back on her grease-stained face. When Vissie saw her, she hurried towards the humongous monster and embraced her in a big hug.

"Gods, you are somehow bigger and fatter than when I last saw you," said Vissie, as she let go and then squatted beside the fat warrior.

"Well you haven't gotten any thinner than yourself to be fair," said Umbla and lightly punched her in the shoulders.

While that reunion was going on Eldur looked up from his carving to see the new arrivals.

"What the hell took you so long?" he rudely asked.

"Hey," began Papyrus. "That's not-"

Papyrus became stopped as he realized whom he was talking to.

"Oh my gods," he stammered. "You-you are Eldur! The ex-Royal Guardsman! I had heard you joined, but I have no idea you would be here. You have no idea how happy that makes me. You are easily my favourite Royal Huntsman. Well besides me of course… and Mickey."

"I'm sorry, who the hell are you?" asked Eldur.

"Me? Well, I am the great-"

"This is Papyrus, the newbie I told you about on the phone," said Mickey.

Papyrus looked at Mickey with annoyance.

"Excuse me," he said. "But even though I am a big fan of you, that was very rude. Why did you interrupt my epic intro-"

Before Papyrus managed to finish, Mickey looked at him with a glare which sent shivers through the skeleton's bones.

"Ehhh… never mind," said Papyrus nervously. "You- you may interrupt me as much as you want."

Mickey kept staring at him for a moment, then smiled and turned to the rest of the group.

"All right," he began. "I'm off for a while. I need to go do some, 'private business', and when I'm back, we'll go over the plan for today. Until then, keep each other entertained in the meantime."

Before Papyrus could ask what he meant by 'private business', Mickey had already left through the thick foliage. Papyrus was very curious about this secret affair, but the others didn't seem to mind it that much.

Maybe he's doing reconnaissance, thought Papyrus.

While Papyrus and the rest of the group proceeded to sit down by the campfire, Willy instead stood nearby, his back leaning on a tree, and kept to his title of being quiet. He didn't have the mask on anymore, so Papyrus got to see just what this old monkey looked like. His face had a lot more fur than Mickey did overall, and it had visible strokes of grey, while the visible skin on his cheek and brow had strokes of old age about them. Papyrus figures that he must be at least a couple of hundreds of years old.

Meanwhile, Eldur was still carving wood by himself, and Vissie and Umbla began considering the new recruit.

"So you're the new meat, huh?" asked Umbla, her deep voice booming inside here mask.

Papyrus was shocked. Another famed warrior was actually talking to him and attempting to starting the conversation no less. This must mean he was more popular than he realized.

"Indeed," he said. "I am-"

"Hey Umbla," Vissie said suddenly. "I just got an awesome idea. How about you let the newbie try some of your black stuff?"

Umbla looked straight at her and gave out a chuckle. Papyrus then watched her as she stood up and began stomping to the giant backpack behind her.

"Black juice?" Papyrus asked curiously.

"It's this awesome magic potion Umbla created a while ago," said Vissie as she neared the skeleton. "It's an incredible drink that we give new recruits if they dare. It has the power to give anyone that swallows it incredible strength, and incredible might."

If Papyrus had ears like a dog, the would most likely have perked up at that description. He moved his glace at Umbla, who was in the distance, pouring some strange looking liquid into a bucket.

"Did you just say," began Papyrus. "That anyone who drinks it becomes immensely strong and great?"

"That's right," said Vissie. "Ever wondered how Umbla got so fat. Well, that ain't just because her parents are a cow and a pig. Those are actually muscles, not fat, that covers her. She is like super strong after drinking so much of it."

"That sounds… amazing," said Papyrus. "Why haven't I heard of this amazing concoction until now?"

"Well that's 'cause it's a secret," said Vissie. "It's so strong we can't risk it getting into the wrong hands."

"Well whatever it is," said Papyrus. "I want in."

With that said, Umbla returned with a bucket full of foul-smelling liquid.

"Here is your juice," she said as she handed Papyrus the bucket.

Papyrus took it from her hands and looked down on the oily black liquid he was about to consume. It looked disgusting, and he immediately wanted to throw it away. But if drinking this was a prize to pay for numerous strength, he would gladly pay it.

"How much do I need to drink, before I achieve greatness?" he asked.

"Drink as much as you like," said Vissie cheerfully. "The more you drink, the greater you become."

"Oh," said Papyrus. "Well in that case-"

And then Papyrus began pouring the strange liquid into his mouth. It tasted awful, and at times he felt like he was choking, but he kept pouring it senselessly into himself, and in just a few seconds, he had finished the entire bucket. A large swathe of black coloured liquid surrounded his mouth, which he stroke of with the back of his hand, as he prepared for the changes to take place.

"All right," said Papyrus, and he almost puked due to the awful aftertaste. "That was horrendous, but hopeful worth it. Now when does it begin? WAIT. I feel something. I think. Oh my god. It's coming. I can feel it. I-"

He felt… nothing. Nothing at all, except for disgust and immense fullness. Vissie and Umbla were snickering, while Eldur began holding in laughter and Willy, who had been watching this unfold from a distance, just shook his head in embarrassment.

"Nothing?" asked Papyrus, bedazzled. "That's strange. That's not supposed to happen right. Why can't I feel any more powerful or great or… WAIT A MINUTE. Of course, that makes so much sense. I don't feel any greater, because I am ALREADY MAX GREAT. I AM SO AMAZING, THAT THIS POTION COULD NOT PUSH ME ANY FURTHER."

" **No, it's just because you just drank a bucket full of oil.** "

"Wait wha-"

And with that, Papyrus he fell on four feet and attempted to cough and puke out all that he had swallowed, while Vissie, Umbla and Eldur exploded into laughter.

"YOU- YOU FOOLS!" yelled the angry skeleton. "YOU- YOU JAPED ME!"

"Oh lighten up," said Vissie in the middle of laughter. "It's just a prank moron, and it's not like oil is deadly to an undead… I think."

"GOD… GOD DAMMIT!" yelled Papyrus. "YOU BETTER PAY ME BACK FOR THIS. GIVE ME THE ACTUAL POTION THIS TIME!"

"Oh you don't get it, do you?" said Vissie as she calmed down. "There is no magic strength potion here. I lied. There's just oil."

"Wha-what?" asked Papyrus, as he looked at the large backpack that held the oil can. "Why the… why did you… WHY THE HELL DO WE HAVE SO MUCH OIL."

"Oh it's for Umbla," said Vissie. "She loves bombs. And fires."

"Well if you have any more annoying tricks up your sleeves, just pull them out now so we can get this nonsense over with."

There was no reply.

"Good," said Papyrus. "If you are lying to me, about there being no more tricks I mean, I will make you pay double for them!"

"What the hell is the deal with you anyway?" asked Vissie suddenly.

Papyrus was puzzled by that question. Did Mickey really not tell anyone who he was?

"Oh you don't know?" asked the skeleton. "Well, that explains your deviant and rude behaviour towards me. You see, you may not recognize me, but you obviously must have heard of me, for I am THE GREAT PAPYRUS AND-"

"The Great Papyrus?" asked Vissie while on the verge of laughing again. "Did you really just fucking call yourself _The Great Papyrus_? REALLY? That's. Freaking. Hilarious."

Papyrus frowned angrily. He felt insulted. More insulted than earlier in fact.

"My name's no joke!" he insisted. "It is majestic. Like me. And extremely appropriate for such a great and famed warrior."

"What the hell does Great even mean in this context?" asked Vissie unseriously. "Did you name it of your great, quote on quote, size? Or is this your way to compensate for your lack of one?"

Umbla, who sat nearby, gave out a short but hefty laugh when she heard that.

"Well if you must know," began Papyrus. "That indeed does relate to by great size. Not just literally though, for I am also very noble, and so powerful and strong that I rival even king Asgore himself."

"Oh that's bullshit!" said Vissie.

"It is true" insisted Papyrus.

"Well then if you are so great, why haven't I, or anyone here, heard of you before?"

"Oh, that's because ehhh..."

Papyrus wasn't sure how to answer that. He wanted to make believable but false answer, but after a while, he decided to be truthful.

"I am not exactly world-renowned just yet," he admitted. "But trust me. While you may doubt me now, when this weekend is over, my name will be echoed throughout the entire underground. My mere presence will make monsters fawn over me, and they will want to be my friends. My title, which you find so hilarious, will be spoken of in legends alongside old heroes of old. And you, you will be sorry for ever doubting me, but when you come for forgiveness, I will gladly grant it to you, for I am the Great Papyrus, and I am as noble as I am great."

There was silence for a moment but then Vissie exploded into laughter, and Umbla soon followed as well.

"God you're pathetic," said Vissie. "What the hell does Mickey see in you even."

"Well," began Papyrus. "He sees my-"

"What the hell does he see in you?" Eldur asked Vissie.

Vissie and Umbla both looked at his direction, and Vissie slowly removed her mask, showing her insulted face.

"Excuse me?" she asked angrily.

"You heard me right," said Eldur without looking up from his carving. "What the hell does he see in you."

Vissie looked furious for a while, but then she put on a fake smile and chuckled.

"Really?" she began. "You really wanna do this shit now? Again?"

"Why not," asked Eldur and looked up at her. "Not like we got anything better to do. So tell me, which dick did you suck to get in here?"

"Uhh, what's a-" started Papyrus.

"Oh shut the hell up!" said Vissie. "Why is it so hard for you to believe I got here legit?"

"Oh I dunno," began Eldur. "Maybe it's because you are unstable, unreliable, and barely capable of following basic orders. Let's not forget that your fetish for loudness has countless times almost ruined everything by giving away our location to the enemy, to point where we had to even subdue you that one time. I am honestly surprised Mickey hasn't sent you back to the nuthouse where you belong, or are you too deep into his pants for that to be a possibility."

" **Oh, you-** "

With her face full of fury, she stood up and threw her mask away.

"You think I'm crazy? Unstable? You call me too loud? THEN HOW ABOUT THIS THEN. YOU LIKE THAT? YOU LIKE THAT YOU STUPID RABBIT FU-"

"If you don't shut up this instant!" yelled Eldur. "Then I am going to come over there and cut out your fucking tongue!"

"Oh, I should shut up? I should shut up?! YOU ARE THE ONE WHO STARTED THIS ASSHOLE-"

"Gu-guys, stop," began Papyrus. "There is no need to bring such crude language and needless threats of dismemberments. Aren't you two supposed to be friends?"

Eldur and Vissie stopped their arguing and turned to face the skeleton.

"Friends?" asked Eldur. "Seriously? Yeah no."

"Friends with this dweeb?" asked Vissie and scoffed. "Not in a million years."

These responses made the young skeleton, surprised to say the least. For years he had believed that the Royal Hunt was like a large family. A noble brotherhood of monsters that valued honour and friendship above all else, and would always watch each other's back no matter what. But Papyrus had never heard anything that even hinted that there could be this much hostility between the members. Minor arguments maybe, but never something on this level.

"Bu-but," he stuttered. "You are just saying that because you both are upset, right? I know what that's like, believe me, you should see my brother, but you shouldn't let this anger be the ruin of your perfectly good friendship."

"Look kiddo," began Eldur. "I don't know what the hell you expected from us, but truth be told, I have no interest to be friends with anyone here. Especially not this crazy bitch."

"Oh you shut your fucking mouth!" commanded Vissie. "Why the hell are you even still here if you hate us so much?"

Eldur shrugged.

"Pays well," he said.

"And you get to be a popular hero, right?" added Papyrus.

"Oh will you please just stop adding yourself into everything!" said Vissie.

"I am not adding myself in," clarified Papyrus. "I am merely trying to add to the conversation."

"THAT'S THE SAME THING YOU MORON!"

"Geez, no need to yell like that," said Papyrus, blown back by her sudden shouting.

"You know I hate to take her side," began Eldur. "But I have to be honest. You talk too much it's honestly annoying."

"Oh is that what's been bothering you," said Papyrus, and he felt an ounce of revelation. "If my endearing voice and speaking are too much for you, then I am sorry. But it's just… I am just so happy to finally being with on a first official mission with the Royal Guard and-"

"The Royal Guard?" asked Eldur. "You mean the Royal Hunt right."

A pit opened up in Papyrus' nonexistent stomach. He just misspoke. He was not going to let this act of foolery make him weak.

"I mean," he began. "No. And also yes. Yes and no. I mean, technically you are the Royal Hunt and not the Royal Guard, but it doesn't matter what I call you guys since you are practically the same group right?"

There, the skeleton thought to himself proudly. Managed to avoid that disaster.

Suddenly, there came an unfamiliar sounding chuckle from someone behind him. It came from Willy, who had remained silent this entire trip until now. The rest of the group took their eyes from Papyrus and looked at the usually quiet monkey.

"What's so funny," asked Papyrus.

Willy looked at him with cold, unhumorous eyes, and for the first time since Snowdin, he spoke.

"The Royal Guard's dead boy," he said. "There's only the Hunt now."

Papyrus looked at him in confusion. Why did Willy he act like these two groups were so unlike each other?

"I'm sorry," he began. "What do you-"

Before he could finish, there was a rustling in the leaves nearby and Mickey arrived from the foliage, and all the other monsters became quiet. Papyrus observed that Mickey was seemingly fixing his belt for some reason.

"Apologies I'm late," he said. "This shit took way longer than I anticipated."

"What were you doing?" asked Papyrus.

"Does it matter?" asked Mickey.

"Well yeah it-"

Papyrus then stopped as he began thinking this more through. Did it really matter to him?

"Hmmm," he continued. "Well no. I guess it doesn't."

"Well," said Mickey. "Then you have no reason to ask."

"So what's the mission boss?" asked Umbla.

"I was just getting to that," said Mickey. Then he raised his voice, and began speaking to the whole group like he was doing a presentation:

"So for those of you who aren't Willy, in these woods, there is a broken down and abandoned barn house. Honestly, though, I've seen it before from a distance and it looks more like a glorified shack. But anyway, according to our intel, that place is supposedly the secret hiding place of a couple of criminals. These criminals are some very bad monsters indeed, many of them being wanted for years, and the crown will be very happy for us to take care of them. They have been keeping refuge in that place for god knows long, eating dirt and whatever they can scavenge."

"So it's just a simple criminal hunt?" asked Eldur. "Funny, you made it sound more interesting over on the phone."

"That's not all," said Mickey and smiled. "Here is where it gets interesting. Those criminals are more of a secondary mission if anything. I don't care if we take them down, or they'll get away just as long as we catch what we're after, but considering the importance of it, I doubt they'll give us much choice."

"What could be so important that they'll risk their asses for it?" asked Eldur.

Mickey smiled. He seemed to be looking forward to this.

"Because," he began. "According to my intel, these criminals are holding a **human boy**."

Eldur became shocked, and Vissie looked at Umbla in gleeful surprise. Papyrus meanwhile, almost gasped in response when he heard the words a human boy. He was actually going to see a human for the first time. Very few monsters remember what they even look like, so this was more than just a privilege. This was a blessing.

"Well," began Eldur. "That is important."

"A hu-human?" Papyrus asked in surprise.

"That's right," said Mickey. "In all his glorious flesh and blood. He fell down here just last week and has been reported to have been hanging out in this area since Monday. He's only about 12 years old or so, and not very strong so the monsters there will most likely try their hardest to protect him."

"Wait I don't get it," began Vissie. "Why would these monsters be trying to keep him safe?"

"I dunno, but it doesn't matter," said Mickey. "All that's important is that everything goes according to plan and we catch the human without too much hassle."

"Yeah speaking of which?" began Eldur. "What is the plan even?"

"Glad you asked," said Mickey. "So here's how it goes. While the five of us will go down to the front of the shack where we will try forcing them into bringing the boy out peacefully, there is another, larger group of lesser warriors hiding nearby. If we fail, then we'll tear down the house and start attacking, which will signal the rest of our group that will be hiding nearby, to come to assist us. Now I picked you guys specifically to be in the forefront of the battle, simply because you are some of the best I have."

Papyrus froze. Did he just say he was some of the best he had? Eldur looked at him in confusion.

"Then what the hell is he doing here?" he asked and pointed at Papyrus. "Moral support? Comic relief?"

Umbla and Vissie laughed a bit while Mickey just smiled. Papyrus was a bit insulted on the other hand.

"Hey," Papyrus said sternly. "You should know that it is a bad idea to underestimate someone, especially someone like me."

"You're right," said Mickey and looked Eldur. "Papyrus' right, he's a lot stronger than he seems."

Papyrus was incredibly glad to hear that. He really did seem to think highly of him.

"But anyway," continued Mickey. "This is our plan for now. Most of these bad monsters don't have a proper training in combat, except for maybe 2 or 3, so we'll easily overwhelm these fools and crush them. Oh and one more thing. We still need to wait for the rest of the group to get into their position so we'll just have to wait here until then. I don't know when they will, but they'll message me. So then, any questions?"

"Uh yeah," began Papyrus. "When can I try some of that green cigar thing?"

Mickey chuckled a bit in amusement.

"Not yet, not yet," he said. "That's reserved for Royal Huntsmen only."

Mickey then looked at the rest of the group.

"If you have any more dumb questions, ask only if they are related to the mission ok?"

"Oh yeah," began Papyrus as he suddenly remembered something he found very curious. "There was one thing and fret not my friend, it is related to our quest. I think. But anyway, the question is: why do we have so many ropes?"

Mickey didn't answer for a while. Instead, he just stared at the skeleton, as he was thinking about how to answer the question.

"Well," he finally said after a while. "The thing is-"

"Oh wait I think I know," interrupted Papyrus. "We need them to tie the bad guys. After we capture them of course."

Mickey looked at him thoughtfully and smiled.

"Yes," he said. "We'll use them to tie them up. Any more questions? No? Well, then fine by me then."

Mickey proceeded to sit down by the fire.

"What do we do now?" asked Papyrus."

"Now," said Mickey as he adjusted himself. "We'll wait."

Mickey put his hands over the fireplace, rubbed them together, and then there came a tiny explosion and the fire became larger and hotter and gained a bright orange hue. He was obviously unaware of the fact that even though Skeleton monsters could sense temperature, they couldn't actually feel it like most other monsters, and as a result, heat was barely an issue. But Mickey seemed so satisfied of his work so that Papyrus didn't want to break his heart and so decided not to tell him.

"Ah, that's better", Mickey said, then re-adjusted himself in his seat. With that, Vissie started a one-sided conversation with Umbla while the rest of the group sat there in silence. Papyrus had often been on camp trips before, so he had a couple of ideas on how to pass the time in such a situation.

"So what do you guys wanna do in the meantime," he asked like the others were longtime friends. "Anyone wanna play some games. What about mind chess? It's a game I invented. It's like chess except you don't need to use a board or pieces, just your mind. But if that's too hard then how about some puzzles instead-"

"Y'know I appreciate the gestures and all," said Mickey. "But considering we have some time before we head out, I think that now would be a good to time get to know each other better. Y'know as possible future friends. Or brothers, dare I say."

Papyrus' metaphorical heart skipped a beat after hearing Mickey call him a "future friend" and it skipped another one when he called him a soon to be brother.

"Wh-what you wanna talk about?" asked Papyrus nervously.

Mickey took out a white cigar from his back pocket and put it in his mouth. Then he leaned towards the fire to lighten it. When it was lit, he inhaled a big green smoke and leaned back in his seat.

"So", he began while holding the cigar between his fingers. "There is one thing I want to ask you. It's a question that has been on my mind for many, many years. It's about your kind, Skeletons I mean."

Mickey inhaled another smoke and smiled.

"Skeleton monsters are incredible," he continued. "In a mysterious slash morbid kind of way. As humans of the olden times used to say, you are creatures that border on the edges of life and death."

Mickey paused for a minute as he began thinking a bit. Meanwhile, Papyrus felt an incredible rush of pride due to Mickey's praise of skeletons.

"I-I had no idea you had such an affinity for skeletons," Papyrus said in utter disbelief.

Mickey chuckled in response. Then after a few seconds, he ceased his cheerful posture and resumed his astuteness as he continued his speech.

"It's just such a shame that there are so few of you left," he began. "Of all living beings, you are some of the most fascinating, and puzzling creatures of existence, but of those who are left, learn anything from them has proved very difficult. Your grandpa Semi lives alone in the woods somewhere, having cut himself off from all contacts and electronics like some mad hermit, while your father Gaster is, well Gaster. No offence, but your dad is very, incredibly untalkative let's say."

Papyrus felt kind of bad hearing him talk bad about his dad like this, but at the same time, he was sure that Mickey mustn't have meant ill by it.

"Eh, none taken," Papyrus said.

Mickey grinned.

"As I was saying," he continued. "Learning anything of your kind has been very difficult as of late. To make matters worse, I soon found out that most scientists and researchers are just as bewildered as well, since most of the old books and papers were destroyed in the great war a long time ago, so most of the current knowledge comes in the form of rumours from some personal antidotes and some types of armchair researchers."

Mickey then silently hand pushed his cigarette on the ground, and the tiny green smoke disappeared in the quickly in the air.

"But there is one question," Mickey continued. "That has been on my mind for so long. A question, that I've heard often asked by children and more uneducated monster folk, and one that I have pondered ever since I first heard of you strange anomalous creatures. I am sure there is some book or biased article that answers it, but I am not looking for answers from some dumb twat that has never met a skeleton in their life. I'd rather ask someone who is close to them, and who is more close to skeleton monsters than one who's a skeleton monster himself. So I ask you Pappy, will you do the honours? We will be most grateful."

After that, all the other members turned their attention and looked patiently at Papyrus. A burst of excitement washed over him. This was it. This could be how he would show the group that his knowledge and greatness was not as low as they claimed earlier. They would most surely feel bad for mocking him. Maybe after this, they would take him more seriously without a doubt.

"All right, what is it?" asked the skeleton, trying his best to let immense pride and determination come from his voice.

Mickey then leaned closer to him looked Papyrus straight into the eye sockets and asked:

" _How do you guys fuck_?"

Wait, what? What did he just say?

Papyrus didn't show it, but he was stunned. What the hell kind of question was that? And did he use that strange F word again? He had heard other monsters use that before, and he heard it plenty from Vissie and Eldur earlier, but he didn't think much of it. But this was a crucial word this time around, and Papyrus was clueless to its meaning. Didn't Mickey say the other day that that word was something about leaving one alone? Was he asking how skeletons leave or something? Why would he be asking him that? Papyrus had heard plenty of strange questions in his life and thought he was ready to answer anything, but instead, what he got bombarded his mind with even questions.

"Wait, what?" he asked. "What do you mean-"

"Since you lack the most essential elements to fornicate," continued Mickey with a huge grin on his face. "There have been countless rumours and theories about how Skeletal monsters, you know, fuck. But the most common rumour slash theory that I've heard, which is also my favourite, is that while the females have a ghostly womb, male Skeletons have, on the other hand, a blue glowing cock. "

Papyrus was very confused. He had heard the word cock from a human animal study book he had found in a garbage pile, called Children's guide to farm animals, where it mentioned that cock was another name for a rooster, so he knew what it was, but that didn't explain anything. Why would skeletons have glowing chickens, and why would anyone think that?

"Do you have one?" Mickey asked. His smile was wider now. He was clearly enjoying this.

"Have what?" Papyrus asked, even though he knew what he meant. He simply couldn't think straight, as most of his mind was still trying to wrap his head around this bizarre mindset.

"A blue, glowing, phantom cock?"

Mickey seemed surprisingly eager to know the answer. Papyrus stood there in silence for a few seconds, trying to remember if he had at any point in his life owned a magical, ghost chicken. Then he began to think how much he wanted a pet chicken. It couldn't get any worse than a dog, and chickens were much more solitary creatures. He could even have an unlimited supply of eggs for breakfast every day. He wanted to lie to them now and say that yes, he does indeed have a blue glowing chicken. But Papyrus knew that he couldn't keep this a secret forever, so decided it was better to tell them the bad news.

"I, unfortunately, don't have one, but I'm now wishing I did", Papyrus said. Mickey stopped smiling when he heard that.

"Well", he said, sounding somewhat disappointed. "That's a shame."

"Agree," Papyrus said.

"So how ya do it?" Mickey asked suddenly. His eyes were wide open, and he stared at Papyrus with a maddening glare. Papyrus was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable.

"Do what?" asked Papyrus.

"Y'know what I mean," Mickey said, smiling. "When you wanna pleasure a woman, what do you do? Do you dry hump, use your limbs? **Do ya finger her c** -"

"Ok, you have officially stopped making any sense."

With that, Mickey and the rest of the group suddenly burst out in laughter. Papyrus hadn't noticed, but throughout this entire exchange, the others had been trying their hardest to hold in their smiles and laughter.

"What's so funny?" asked Papyrus in bewilderment.

They were all still laughing. Even Willy, who wasn't laughing, seemed somewhat amused.

Mickey seemed to be trying his hardest to keep it in.

"It's ok, it's ok," he said while tearing up. "I was just messin' with ya is all."

Papyrus did not seem amused.

"Well I do not like being messed," he said and folded his arms together.

"Ahhh, you're so pompous," said Mickey and wiped away his tears. "I have to admit, I'm starting to like you."

"Starting to?" asked Papyrus in surprise.

But before the skeleton could get a proper answer, a messaging sound suddenly came from Mickey's front pocket. Mickey reached into his pocket and pulled out a small phone. Mickey then looked at the screen and grinned.

"Welp, it's time," he said and put back on his metal mask. "Pack it up, guys. We're going now."

With that, every monster besides Papyrus began to quickly pack up their things, turn off the fireplace, and so on, while the skeleton just sat there doing nothing because a wave of anxiety and hype just rushed over him. He found it hard to believe, but here he was. This was actually happening. He was going to his first actual heroic mission. He was so excited, he could-

"Bonehead?" asked Mickey. "You are with us aren't you?"

With that, Papyrus got shot back into reality.

"Uhh yeah of course."

"Good," said Mickey. "Cause' otherwise, you would be left behind."

Then after the group had finished, Mickey turned to them and shouted:

"HUNTERS! LET'S GO!"

…

In an isolated barn house in the woods, a group of monsters were living together in secret. One of them, a young toad monster, was polishing his spear. It wasn't because he had an emotional connection to it, but because he had nothing else to do. It was a long time since he had been in a place with any electricity or power or even a place where he could speak more than a few words and louder than in whispers until said otherwise. The last rule was a big shame, as the house was filled with about 20 other monsters, and he really wanted to better know some of them better. But this was the price to pay for being in the rebellion. Boredom, and uncomfortable quietness, except when it was time for action of course. While he had never been there, he had heard that the boredom and quietness were mostly non-existent in Sanctuary, which is why he couldn't wait to finally go there.

On the table opposite of him, there sad a male dog with a black cloak and a massive axe. This was Dogamy, an ex-member of the Royal Guard, and he was very quietly playing chess with a wood monster. Dogamy was losing by a long shot, most likely because he was worried about his wife, who was stuck in a coma in a hospital far away, and Dogamy couldn't risk visiting her.

After about a long time of near silence, there was suddenly a knock on the door. Every monster stopped what they were doing and entered their battle state.

"Seven souls, and seven humans. For each their loss, the gate will open," said a voice behind the door.

With that, all the monster became relaxed. The voice that spoke the secret password was all too familiar to them all. Not only that, this was someone they had been waiting for a long time. The wood monster then stopped his card game with Dogamy and went to open the door for the visitor. Behind the door was an old Loox monster named Walken, who was a respected member of the rebellion.

"Where is the human," whispered Walken when he was inside. "Is he okay?"

The wood monster nodded and Walken gave a sigh of relief.

"May I see him," whispered Walken.

With that, the wood monster silently commanded Dogammy to go down into the basement while Walken went inside. After about a few minutes, Dogamy returned upstairs with a human child with brown skin and short black hair. Walken examined him carefully. The boy seemed quiet and scared.

"This is good," said Walken. "Very good indeed. What is your name, young boy?"

"Si-Simon," the human said nervously.

"Simon?" asked Walken and smiled. "Well, that's a nice name."

Then suddenly, like an omen of bad things to come, there came a loud shout from outside the house.

"WAKIE WAKIE."

All the monsters in the house turned dead quiet. Old Walken knew that voice very well and became incredibly terrified.

"Oh no," he whispered hopelessly.

"I-is that bad," asked the frightened human.

"Very bad," whispered Walken.

"I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE," the voice shouted. "NO USE HIDING."

Walken slowly turned to the others, and motioned with his large mouth:

Don't. Move. Don't. Make. a. Sound.

Every monster was dead still, but even then, they all believed it was hopeless. The nervous toad held his spear firmly, and Dogamy readied his axe.

"COME NOW, DON'T NEED TO HURT YOU" the voice shouted. "IN FACT, I WANNA MAKE YOU DEAL. GIVE US THE HUMAN AND WE WON'T HARM YA."

Walken began quietly sneaking to the front door. He looked out the small crevice that on it and saw who the stranger was. He knew it. This was indeed the Royal Hunt that stood outside. He counted Mickey of course and Quiet Willy, and Vissie, Eldur, and Umbla, but then there was also someone whom Walken had never seen before. It was a tall looking skeleton not wearing the Royal Huntsman garb, but a unique armour set complete with a red cape and all. Walken felt he stood out immensely. Who the hell was he? Was he a hostage?

The skeleton whispered inaudibly in Mickey's ear. The mad ape just laughed, looked at the skeleton and said out loud:

"What do you think?"

The skeleton then slowly backed away, seemingly becoming nervous, and Mickey continued his shouting.

"COME ON NOW. THERE IS NO NEED FOR VIOLENCE."

Once again, the monsters in the house remained silent.

"FINE," Mickey shouted. "YOU LEAVE ME NO CHOICE. GUESS I JUST GONNA HAVE TO HUFF AND PUFF."

"Huff and puff?" whispered the wood monster. "The hell does that mean?"

Suddenly, the human boy was hit with a frightening realization.

"Oh no," he said out loud.

"Quiet!" Walken whispered back harshly.

A strange sound came from behind the door.

"What is that?" whispered the toad.

"GET BACK," the human boy shouted in desperation. "HE'S BRINGING THE FRIGGIN HOUSE DO-"

And then, there was a deafening explosion. And blinding light.

…

Mickey was completely exhausted after firing that massive blast. As smoke covered the massive hole he created, he was on the verge of falling to his knees. But he stood tall, as he removed his mask to breathe easier. Papyrus looked at his face and saw strange red liquid leaking from his nose.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"I'm fine," said Mickey and wiped the red thing off with the back of his hand.

Then the smoke dissipated, and inside the crumbled down building there were dozens of monsters laying on the ground, struggling to stand up.

Mickey then pulled down his hood, threw the mask on the ground, and conjured up a massive warhammer. He then raised it in the air and with bloodshot eyes, he shouted as hard as he possibly could:

"HUNTERS!"

And before all the monsters inside had stood up, Mickey gave a loud warcry and him and the rest of the Huntsmen charged down the hill. Before he joined them, Quiet Willy used some sorcery to summon dozens of earth golems, and those things mingled themselves with the Hunters into a huge pile, and unknowingly, the group began dragging Papyrus with them inside, for no reason than that he had the poor misfortune of standing in their way.

"Hey? Wait just a-"

It was no use. The sounds of yelling deafened out his cries. Before he knew it, he was thrown on the floor, and something hard kicked him in his head. Then, there was blackness.

…

After about a minute, Papyrus woke up. The room was blurry and spinning, he smelled nothing but fire and brimstones, and his hearing was filled with incomprehensible muffling, There was much smoke as well, so even if his vision was fixed, he would barely see in front of him.

"What- what's going on?" Papyrus said feebly.

He could now barely glance at a large round shadowy silhouette standing in the smoke in front of him.

"Mickey?" Papyrus asked while slowly standing up. "Is that you?"

Then the silhouette stumbled through the smoke, revealing a large and old Loox. There was a large gaping wound in his eye, and the same strange red liquid as earlier was leaking from it.

"Are you-"

Then the massive Loox gave a shout and launched himself at the skeleton and threw him back on the floor. Then the Loox held him down and looked at the frightened skeleton straight in the eye sockets

"You..." was all the Loox could manage, and then he began shaking Papyrus profusely.

"Wha-what are you doing," Papyrus said frightened.

Then the Loox stopped, and he suddenly began to choke. More red liquid began leaking out of his massive mouth, and it began raining down on the frightened skeleton like a red waterfall. Some of the strange liquid entered the unfortunate skeleton's mouth and he gagged. It tasted like iron.

Then the rain stopped, and the old Loox's massive eye became dead and lifeless. As he proceeded to fall, he turned to dust, and the dust snowed on Papyrus like a massive snowstorm. Before he realized it, Papyrus was covered head to toe in white dust like a malnourished snowman. Papyrus was now laying there, shaking. For the first time in his life, he just saw someone die. He wanted to scream, he wanted to cry, but he could muster no energy to do either of those things, so instead, he just laid there, his bones rattling intensely.

Suddenly, he felt something inside of him. Something that was climbing up his non-existent throat and threatening to break through his jaws. By instinct, he turned quickly turned on his stomach and began throwing up. He began choking the red liquid he choked, which turned to dust as soon as it left his mouth. When it was over, he felt exhausted and began laying down.

After laying in his vomit for a few moments, his vision finally adjusted, and his other senses quickly follow suit.

The sounds of crackling fire and the clash of countless metals surrounded him. The air smelled like putrid ash, and the house was drowned by black and white smokes. Countless of silhouettes moved and clashed in the smoke around him, more than he could count. He also noticed that the figures were way more than the ones from his group and all the enemies combined. The others must have finally arrived.

Papyrus looked around and saw a large table standing in front of him. He quickly crawled under it and curled, like a small frightened cub hiding under its mother during a bad storm.

His hearing now got better again. A young female monster screamed in pain somewhere. There was the muffled cry of a young boy and the desperate cries of the hopeless rebels. The sounds of squishing and slicing came from all directions, and occasionally, Papyrus heard… laughter.

Then after a while, the smoke finally dissipated. The young skeleton could now finally see. He could now see everything that was going on. But then an awful feeling began crawling all over him. A feeling that threatened to devour him whole. For the first time in a long while, Papyrus… was terrified. Completely and utterly terrified. He had imagined battles before, in his dreams and playtimes, and his whole life he expected to be amazed at witnessing his idols in what he considered as glorious combat. He should have been happy, he should have been freaking out in fanboyism at seeing all that he dreamt and imagined coming to life in front of him. But instead. He was filled with terror. Terror and pure shock.

He saw a poor wood monster screaming, as he was being impaled in the eye by Willy while being headlocked by his golem. A young female fish monster laid screaming on the floor, her ankle was twisted upside down and filled with holes, with more red juice leaking from them. A large claustrophobic crowd of monsters was piled up the corner, and red and white stuff sprayed constantly from it. A white dog monster wearing a black cloak, whom Papyrus recognized as the ex-Royal Guardsman Dogamy, was being overwhelmed by Willy's faceless golems, and nearby Eldur and Umbla were holding in ropes a small figure with brown skin and a bag on its head. Vissie was wildly flinging her small axes at the back of a young turtle monster, while countless of masked Royal Huntsmen were slashing and beating at a cornered enemy group.

The floor and walls were covered in red splatters and white dust, and countless wounded monsters lying helplessly in chains or on the floor slowly dying.

This was too much for the skeleton to handle. More than too much in fact. Like staring into the gates of hell itself, it would be impossible to look away and still keep a sane innocent mind. He wanted to watch. No, he had to watch, because he wanted to be relieved when he would witness all chaos, all this violence slow down as it couldn't get any further than this. Or that was what his innocent and feeble mind believed, as it was not built to witness this much acts of cruelty. But then he looked at the centre where he saw the most maddening thing of all. It was like a twisted crowning jewel, a hideous centrepiece that stood on the bottom of a pit of complete and utter madness. It was a repulsive creature indeed, a spawn of complete, unadulterated evil. This creature was... Mickey, and at this moment, he was the most frightening thing Papyrus had ever seen. Not because he was covered in red splatters and white dust without caring, not because of the chunks of monster guts stuck and tangled in his tentacle hair and had yet to turn to dust, and not because of Mickey was standing on top of a poor monster that cried and wailed while trying to move away but was held down by Mickey's dusty and red splattered hammer, but what shook Papyrus to his fragile care was that despite all this violent horror, despite all this unwholesome charade of fear and death Mickey was… laughing. Just laughing. Uncontrollably, like all this chaos, all this violence and gruesome display was the funniest joke in the entire underground. This made no sense to Papyrus. How could Mickey find this funny? How could anyone find this funny? This was the opposite of funny. There was no punchline, no humour, or anything even remotely resembling a joke in any of this

But as Papyrus' innocent mind tried to process this, he began to realize what could possibly be the biggest irony in all his mortal life. Is this what the Royal Hunt is about? Is this what being a hero is? Was the Royal Guard anything like this? If so, then was this what he wanted to be a part of all his life? His entire life was filled with dreams of becoming an honourable knight, a popular figure that would inspire joy and kindness. But if this is what it was like, then...

Know what? Screw the Royal Guard. Screw fame and heroic deeds. Screw everything about this. He had spent so much of his life on the idea of being a heroic knight that he didn't even stop to consider what being a knight actually was. If he knew it would be like this, he would never have considered this dream one bit in his entire life. There was no honour in any of this, no heroism or even any joy. Just violence, fear, and utter chaos.

Perhaps this is what was so funny. The fact that he had wasted almost all of his life on half-truths and lies was perhaps the funniest joke he had ever heard. He wanted to laugh. He wanted laugh incredulously, to burst out in a cascade laughter. But his terror nearly drowned out any other feeling he could have, so he could only muster up a soft maniacal giggle. Perhaps he would laugh harder when all this was over. Maybe he'll laugh while he's telling his tale to Sans, his dear big brother. Oh, Sans. How much he missed him. How much he currently wished to see more than anything in the whole world. Papyrus wished he could just lay down and close his eyes and wake up from this horrific nightmare. But this was no nightmare. This was his dream. And he was finally living it. Just like he always wanted.

…

This massacre had only raged for about few minutes, and already the victor might as well have been decided. The Royal Hunt had so far suffered barely any losses, while the "villains" were either dead or dying, brutally battered and in chains, or still holding their ground in a hopeless battle, like Dogamy who was surrounded by golems, and the young spear wielding toad, who like the brave dog, seemed adamant in not surrendering. Burning flames now covered every corner, of every room in this tiny house, and the heat felt immense. Papyrus did not know the origins of where the fires started.

Mickey was still fighting, hacking at every enemy that crossed his way, and when none did, he scoured the room like a shark in a river of dead fish, looking for the fattest one to satiate him. And a fat one he did indeed find, for the aforementioned toad had just finished his overlong duel with a faceless hunter, whom the toad managed to impale with a spear, and the hunter fell down on the floor and turned to dust. The toad, preparing for his next duel, heard a soft giggle behind him and turned to face his new opponent.

He saw a large monster who looked like an ape, and immense dread fell upon the young amphibian, as he realized of the identity of his new challenger. Mickey began hastening towards him, with a large hammer in his hand, and a massive smile on his face.

"Come here little frog prince!" he said mockingly. " **Let me give you a kiss**!"

The toad, panicking, began poking his spear wildly in Mickey's direction, but the ape was as agile as he was strong, so he managed to dodge and parry the blows for the most part. But then Mickey got careless for a moment, and the toad managed to pierce his face, creating a small, but gaping wound on his cheek, which caused Mickey to pull back for back for a moment. Papyrus and the toad watched as Mickey began examining the wound with his fingers, which now streamed red liquid like the others. When Mickey pulled back his fingers and saw it was now covered in the red stuff, his face became filled with complete fury, and he launched himself at the frightened amphibian who now looked like he regretted everything he had done in his life. Then Mickey gave out a loud scream and before the toad monster could react, Mickey launched himself at his direction like a rabid dog and began flailing his conjured warhammer wildly in the air in the toad's direction. The poor toad tried his hardest to dodge and parry out of the way of this metallic whirlwind, but once Mickey got his first hit on him, it was all over. That single hit was so painful for the toad, that he lost all focus and balance instantly. Seeing an opening, Mickey stopped flailing wildly and began pounding and pounding the poor toad with the hammer constantly while screaming, until the toad's scaly face became bloody and bruised. The toad could barely breathe before Mickey grabbed him, took out a strange yellow syringe from one of his back pockets, and impaled the toads wounded eye. The toad, using the last remaining energy he had, let out a huge cry of pain. Then, Mickey grabbed the toad's spear and impaled him with it. Using the spear, Mickey lifted the still living toad high up in the air and then threw him on top of a table next to him. But Mickey wasn't done, for as Papyrus saw with horror, Mickey used his magic to transform his warhammer into a massive cleaver, and began cleaving at the toad's legs. The toad screamed louder and louder by every hit while Mickey grunted, and red liquid began spewing everywhere until it covered Mickey's face like red paint. After a while, the toad's legs were torn off, with only streaming red water connecting it to the rest of the body, and after a few seconds, the toad breathed out the last remaining energy he had, and his face turned lifeless as it faced Papyrus, while yellow liquid from the syringe ran down his cheek, and he lay on table like a lifeless puppet.

He's dead, thought Papyrus who had watched this entire brutal charade from start to finish. But even in the midst of his trauma, Papyrus realized something was off. His body was still solid. There was clearly no life left in him, but why wasn't he turning to dust?

Dogamy, who exhausted after single-handedly beating those golems, had witnessed his friend's violent death with horror. He stood there alone, holding his axe with both his hands. He was the only one of his group that wasn't dead or captured, but like a true Royal Guardsman, he still held his ground against all odds. Mickey, breathing heavily after his brutal showcase, but still having some energy building up within him, turned to face the lonesome dog. Mickey, eyes wide open and filled with madness, turned his weapon into an axe mimicking Dogamy's, only bigger and shinier. He smiled a mocking grin, and Dogamy began trembling in fear. But despite his near-paralyzing fear, Dogamy was determined and brave, and so launched himself at Mickey.

Papyrus watched them clashing for a while, while the rest of the Royal Hunt also stood by and watched this duel. While Dogamy fought with the finesse and grace as expected from a veteran of the Royal Guard, Mickey simply swung his axe wildly like a butcher.

"Please beat him," Papyrus said to himself. "Please, you have to beat him."

But after a few minutes, when both fighters seemed equal, Papyrus hopes were dashed as Mickey managed to surprise the dog by hitting him in the face with his axe handle, blinding the dog for a moment, and pushing him out of balance.

Then as Dogamy struggled to regain his footing, Mickey threw his axe at the ground, launched himself at Dogamy, put his hands around his body, and then gave out a loud, barbaric scream as he quickly rammed the dog into a wall. The wall cracked by sheer impact, and Mickey then harshly threw the dog on the floor.

Strange red liquids were now leaking from Dogamy's mouth. He didn't even have a chance to stand up before Mickey furiously took hold of him, took the rope that hung from his belt, and put it around Dogamy's neck like a leash. Dogamy, realizing what was happening, began biting and gnawing as he struggled helplessly to untie the bond around his neck which Mickey kept making tighter and tighter.

Papyrus, couldn't bear to watch it. His innocent mind had had enough. He wanted to get out, he wanted to run away. Papyrus hurriedly looked around the room for an open exit, and then saw a large unguarded window. Yes. That was it. He could jump out of it, and run while everyone was distracted watching the torture unfold.

But as he began preparing his run, Papyrus felt something. He looked back at the dog, who began choking and struggle helplessly in his bonds.

No. He wasn't going to run. He was the great Papyrus after all. He wasn't going to flee and let someone die in wain. This madness must end. Now.

It was decided. Papyrus put on his brave face and stood up from the table. He pointed at Mickey and shouted:

"HALT THERE."

All the remaining eyes in the house turned to look at the brave skeleton. But when Mickey's bloodshot eyes turned to Papyrus, all the skeleton's sudden bravery vanished in an instant.

"Ha-halt I said," Papyrus said feebly. "Halt, or-or I'll…".

He looked around at the captured prisoners and all the other huntsmen, and despite their masks, Papyrus still felt their eyes creeping on him.

"Or you'll what?" asked Mickey in a mocking tone, and he began loosening the rope around Dogamy, which caused the dog to breathe easier.

Papyrus didn't know how to respond anymore. He had a speech prepared and everything, but he couldn't muster it anymore.

"Let him go," Papyrus said in almost a feeble whisper.

"No," replied Mickey.

"Le- let him go," said Papyrus. "Or I'll- I'll-"

Mickey gave out a frightening laugh.

"You're actually doing this?" Mickey asked jokingly. "I have to admit. You have bigger balls than I thought. For a cockless little child that is."

"I-I'm not a child."

Mickey laughed.

"You really wanna get into semantics now you daft uck?" he said as he began to tighten the noose again.

"Sto-STOP," yelled Papyrus panicking. "Please! Don't do this!"

"Why not!?" asked Mickey.

"Be-because it's wrong," said Papyrus. "It's awful and immoral. Do this, and you are no better than these so-called villains."

Mickey looked at him for a while. He thought for a second, and suddenly, he loosened Dogamy's rope collar again, and the once again breathed easier.

"Fine," said Mickey. "I'll let him go."

Papyrus became immensely relieved. It worked. He just saved someone.

"Re-really?"

"Yes," Mickey said. "I'll let him go, we will go home and forget that all this happened. You and the rest of us will spend the rest of the weekend at the headquarters just doing whatever."

Suddenly, a huge grin formed on his face.

But…"

Mickey then went and hurriedly tied the noose holding Dogamy to a nail that was standing out of the wooden wall behind them. The dog hurled and trashed, thinking that this nail wouldn't have as strong a grip, but he was also so exhausted that he could only muster up barebones resistance.

"But…" continued Mickey."There is only one thing you must do first. One thing only. Do it, and I promise you, we'll keep our words."

Papyrus became somewhat nervous. Whatever could it this challenge hold? What manner of challenge and difficulty did Mickey think he could bring. But whatever it was, Papyrus was determined to do it.

"I'll do anything," he said. "What is it?"

Mickey looked with his maddening glare through the skeleton's eye sockets, took a deep breath, opened his arms wide, and said:

" **Kill me**."

Papyrus couldn't breathe when he heard that.

Those two words, those two simple commands brought absolute horror and shock to him. He thought he was going crazy after all this trauma because he could not believe for the life of what he heard.

"Wha-what?" he stammered.

"You heard me right. **Kill me**."

"N-no!"

"Why not?" asked Mickey with a huge grin. "You always wanted to be a hero right? A legend to be spoken about for years to come. Well here is your chance. Kill me, and you'll be known as the monster who slew Mickey the great."

"But… but…"

"But what?"

Papyrus couldn't muster up the courage to answer.

This is wrong, he thought. This is very wrong in fact.

Papyrus stared at Mickey and began pondering his actions. If he had skin, he would be sweating profusely.

"C'mon, C'mon," Mickey muttered under his breath impatiently.

This was awful. Never in his entire life had Papyrus even considered wanting to kill a soul. But… then he looked at Dogamy, who was staring at the skeleton with pleading eyes. Just do it, the eyes told Papyrus.

Most of the audience looked somewhat worried as well.

"Mickey…" said Eldur as he crept closer.

Papyrus then looked back at Mickey. He had decided. This would end now. And so, he summoned forth a bone javelin in his hands, and Eldur backed away. Mickey laughed and began clapping his hands.

"That's the spirit," he said. "Come on then. Finish it."

Papyrus began trembling in his boots. He couldn't go further. But Mickey was too far gone, so Papyrus thought that this seemed like the right course of action, yet at the same time Papyrus couldn't stop thinking what would happen if he did do this. What would he become? And would he be able to live with himself?

"Come on!" said Mickey, sounding somewhat irritated. "This ain't that hard."

Mickey was right. This is very easy in fact. So very easy. All he has to do is throw the pointy bone javelin at Mickey and this nightmare would end. Not only that, but he also would save countless innocent monsters that had yet to face Mickey's wrath. But, even so… why couldn't he do it? Why did he find it so difficult to do this simple act? Mickey wasn't even attempting to fight back. In fact, Mickey seemed to be waiting for it. Why couldn't he just kill him?

"What are you waiting for you coward?" Mickey yelled. "Come on!"

Mickey began pounding his chest repeatedly with his fist.

"Do it!" he said after every hit. "Do it!"

But then, out of nowhere, there came a strange squirting sound in the room that pulled Papyrus out of his focus and train of thought and took the attention of the group from this maddening test. It was a sound unlike anything Papyrus had heard, and so he turned from Mickey to look at the source of that noise.

The spear-wielding toad from earlier, still laying on the same broken table, was now twitching violently like life was struggling to get into his body, and from his mouth was spewing strange white ooze. Not only that, his scaly skin had become paler, his body was soggy and wet like a bag full of meat, and his limbs flailed around like a ragdoll. The toad's face suddenly moved and turned upright to face Papyrus and Mickey. The strange ooze, which also came from the wound where his legs were chopped up, kept spewing out in large quantities. The ooze kept coming and coming, but then it began to wane. After only a few moments, the toad looked withered and crumpled up like an old raisin. As the last drops of the ooze was pouring out of him, the toad extended one of his dangly arm to Papyrus, and from his mouth came out what could be best described as a noise, before his body finally gave out and he fell limply on the floor completely dead, This happened in only a few seconds, and Papyrus was near traumatized by it.

But the strange display was not what shook the skeleton so deep into his core. What did it, was the strange noise he made. It was a near incomprehensible gargle, but the skeleton managed to make some semblance of words from this noisome death rattle, but the phrases he heard made the skeleton wish he didn't have such good hearing.

" _Oh gods help me_ ," it said. " _HELP ME_!"

This filled the skeleton with a terror of unimaginable proportions. This was it. This was the limit. His body, unable to be filled with anymore dread, began shaking and twitching, and he dropped his javelin on the ground where it dissipated in the air. He had to get out. He had to get out.

The skeleton glanced once more at Dogamy, who looked like he had lost all hope before Papyrus launched himself out the window. Then he ran. And ran. And ran. He wanted to run as far away as he could, and the only sounds behind him were the crackling of a fire and the maniacal laughter of a mad ape.

…

Papyrus had no idea where, or even how far he had ran. But he didn't care. He didn't care about anything anymore. All he could think about was running through the forest as his bones could take him. The thick foliage and large trees were near identical, and cavern top far above him was so dark, that he might as well have been running in a circle.

After about a half an hour, he was exhausted. Yet he kept running. But when he had reached a large and empty lake, his body finally gave up, and so he stopped by the lake's edge to catch his breath. He was so tired, both physically and mentally, that he almost fell down face first in the water. Instead, he simply sat down by the lake and looked at the water. He began to cry. He didn't just cry out of fear, or just for himself. He also cried for his sanity, loss of innocence, and for all those innocent monsters that suffered, because he was too much of a coward to do anything. He also cried because he began to hate himself. Or rather, he hated who he was. A monster that had wasted so many years of his life on meaningless fantasies, only to be struck by a harsh reality.

As his tears began to wane, he looked down at the lake and saw the face of a frightened and broken skeleton, dressed in dust-covered armour, staring back at him. A monster who had lost all understanding of a world he thought he knew. But as he stared at that scared face, he realized something. This must be the face of the downtrodden, the face of those who were either wronged or broken by the Royal Hunt.

But they didn't have to be this way. No one has to be this way. The Royal Hunt maybe cruel and vicious, but he did not have to be one of them to be popular. He would become a hero by his own, who answers to no one but the poor and downtrodden. He would become like those superheroes from old human myths, who would fight against the Royal Hunt, and other evils that threaten the world.

It was if a burst of hope and bravery had consumed him. He stood up and posed a heroic pose. This must be what he was meant to do. The skeleton had believed he had found his true purpose. He was going to go back, and save those poor monsters that were captured.

He turned around to face the wood and saw a large smoke on the horizon. That must be where the battle took place, and The Royal Hunt could still be there, which meant that the imprisoned monsters most likely with them. If not, then he would simply follow the tracks to their location. This would be his first mission, first of many he thought.

Then he began to run again, but this time, it was a dash of courage. As he ventured through the foliage he thought about his plan. He didn't have to kill Mickey. He didn't have to kill anyone in fact. He was just going to overpower them, and tie them up. He could imagine the faces of the monsters when he saved them. He could imagine the praise and the joy he would feel as he had become a proper hero.

The smoke was very large now, and he could see the fire in the distance. He must have been running for tens of minutes, but he didn't care. He could now hear the crackling. He was so very close.

The fire now burned in front of him so brightly so that, like the legendary sun, it erased every dark corner of his vision.

As he ran closer, he noticed some strange silhouettes hanging in trees in the distance like strange, bulbous decorations. But he didn't care, for whatever challenge the Royal Hunt would throw at him, he would conquer them. He would be known throughout the underground as a legendary hero who defeated Mickey and saved those poor monsters.

Only so close now, he thought to himself. He was going to save these monsters. He was going to be a hero. He was-

…

Papyrus went silent again. Sans looked at him, disturbed and eager, while Papyrus just proceeded to stare into his bowl.

"What happened then?" Sans asked eagerly. "Did you not make it in time?"

Papyrus began tearing up again.

"I… I…" he stammered. "I saw… I saw…"

"You saw what?" Sans asked gently. "The Royal Hunt?"

Papyrus looked at his brother with tearful eye sockets and shook his head.

"No," he began. "They were gone. But… I saw… I saw…"

…

Papyrus saw dozens of monster corpses, set up and showcased all around the burning house like twisted Christmas ornaments. Papyrus recognized them all instantly, for they were all the enemies that the Royal Hunt had "captured". They hadn't turned to dust sure, but Papyrus was still certain that they were all dead. Or at least, that was what Papyrus was hoping for, for being alive to feel and experience this mutilation would be a hellish fate beyond the skeletons fragile imagination.

The bodies looked soggy and squishy like bags full of meat like the toad from earlier, and like the toad, their skins, scales and fur were incredibly pale, like all blood had been sucked out of them.

There were a lot of stony pikes of various sizes, most likely created by Willy, rising out of the ground everywhere around the house like a pointy forest. Some of the corpses were impaled on a few spikes, which went up to their bottoms and came out through either their mouths or eyes. A couple of them, including one that Papyrus recognized as being to the spear-wielding toad, appeared to be slowly melting, like popsicles on a hot summer day.

The rest didn't fare much better, as Papyrus discovered as he looked up to see the source of the strange swaying sound. He counted ten or so monsters, dangling in the air, hanging from ropes coming from the trees. If they were alive, Papyrus would have known, for the ropes were tied around their necks so tightly that it would have choked them.

As Papyrus kept examined the dangling corpses, he saw one that was awfully familiar, and it brought the skeleton to his knees.

"N-no!" he stammered.

It was Dogamy, the one Papyrus was too scared to save. The dog's soggy corpse, still dressed in the black hood, dangled carelessly in the air like the others.

But as the skeleton thought it couldn't get any worse, he noticed the dog's face. It had an expression that was like a mixture of horror and utter despair. It was the face of someone who realized they were being brutally murdered… and couldn't do anything to stop it. Then one of the hanging bodies did something truly disturbing. Papyrus saw it all happen, and the sequence will be forever burned into his mind. The body, that seemed to be melting, made a disturbing sound as it became more liquified and then it squeezed through the tight rope like toothpaste coming out of a tube, and made a disgusting splat as it fell on the ground. Papyrus wanted to puke after witnessing this.

Papyrus looked at the wreckage of the house once more, which was now nothing more than a giant burning rumble. Next to it, was a signpost. It most likely used to mark this residence, but the letters had faded with age and become unreadable, and now the Royal Hunt insignia was painted over it with red coloured paint.

Papyrus had now completely given up. This disturbing and terrifying vision, in addition to an overbearing weight of self-blame, was overwhelmingly too much for his fragile and innocent mind, and it finally broke him. He may have gotten a few dashes of bravery earlier, but Papyrus realized that those feelings always ended up breaking down whenever he actually began acting. Even though a tiny part within him still egged him on, Papyrus just couldn't care anymore. He couldn't even care to run. He couldn't even bring himself to think.

After a few minutes of kneeling in utter silence, and his face becoming blank like a corpse, Papyrus finally stood up and began walking away. There was nothing more for him here. He was going home.

…

The two brothers now sat by the table in utter silence. Papyrus seemed on the verge of tears again, while Sans was completely shocked. This was way worse than he could imagine. His brother's descriptions at the end were perhaps the most horrifying thing he had heard him.

"Oh my gods," said Sans. "Papyrus… I am so sorry. If I had any idea, I would have…"

"Don't," said Papyrus without looking up. "It's not your fault. It's mine. I wasted so much of my life on this. Dreaming of this, without properly knowing what it even was in the first place. But now I know. Now I know."

The two brothers sat there in complete silence once again, each thinking about what just unfolded.

"So," said Sans after a moment. "What now?"

Papyrus said nothing, just stared at the soggy oatmeal in the bow with a blank expression.

"Is there anything I can do for you bro?"

Papyrus let his spoon fall into his bowl without much fanfare, and silently stood up and headed out the kitchen.

"I am going to bed," he said. "Do whatever you want. It doesn't matter to me anymore. Nothing matters in fact."

With that, Papyrus went upstairs to his room and closed the door behind him.

Sans now sat there alone in the kitchen, surrounded by piles of bones and the feelings of pure grief, regret, and anger. All he could think about was whether he should have asked his brother so much about this. This was way worse than he expected. He had heard many stories from strangers and news sites about their heroism, and none of them even came close to what happened in the barn house. Did the Royal Hunt just suddenly turn this cruel out of a sudden? And on the exact same day as Papyrus went with them? That would be stretching it by a lot, and it wouldn't explain why the townsfolk seemed so frightened of them unless they all had some psychic clairvoyance or something. Not to mention, his brother would never lie about this, and Papyrus didn't have the dark imagination to make up half of the stuff he said Mickey did, and whenever Papyrus would explain some of his actions, Sans didn't show it, but he felt intensely uncomfortable hearing that.

And speaking of Mickey, there was so much about him that Sans just could not get, if Papyrus was believed, but there was one thing about him that puzzled Sans more than the rest. Mickey wouldn't have been such a strange case if he was just some random lunatic, but this was Asgore's champion they said. He is the leader of the Royal Hunt, a prestigious title the king wouldn't grant to any monster who had an axe. Asgore himself is said to endorse this group and their action. If he truly does, then he has to know how awful they truly are, how barbaric Mickey and his group could get. Yet for years, the king has not once attempted to publicly rectify them. Also, the Royal Hunt would have to get their orders somewhere, as the Royal Guard did from the king.

So in the end, to Sans, there was only one explanation that seemed the most probable. It was something he thought he would never even consider, but it would best explain the apparent propaganda, civilian brutality, and why Asgore would even think about considering Mickey as his champion.

"Heh, maybe those conspiracy nuts may have been right after all," Sans said to himself. "Maybe old Fluffybuns really has lost his mind."


	6. I am not dead yet

Holy shit this was a long time coming. So for my 20 or so readers wondering why I took so long, here is the thing.  
I was planning on finishing this chapter and releasing it about a week ago, but as I was writing, I was met the dreadful archenemy of every writer. Writer's block. I had planned an outline for a few scenes, namely the bullying that they brought onto poor Papyrus, and him witnessing just what the Royal Hunt does to their enemies. But I just couldn't get into words the perfect descriptions for it. That, plus a lot of exams in my school created an awful cocktail of procrastination. But I have done it, finally. I feel like I may have gotten a bit way overboard with it though, as I noticed when I was writing that I had just reached over 20 pages. So from here on out, the rest of the stories will have way shorter chapters. Like I explained a while ago, this story, AHTR, is only the first part in a long AU I am working on. It acts as kind of a prequel story intended to set up the characters and villains, and also to show just how dark it can get.  
There is only one chapter left of this little tale, and I advise you to not get your hopes up for it. It will be nothing more than a short epilogue, building up what to expect in what I hope is the main story. But so far, I am just starting.  
Hope you enjoy reading it, and see you soon. (Hopefully soon this time) 


	7. Epilogue

_Epilogue_

Countless of nightmares haunted Papyrus that night. He dreamt of fire. Of deafening screams that came from no mouths, and surrounded every corner his home. He dreamt of the masks, the faces of the hunt that kept hounding him and forcing him to perform heinous acts. In one layer of the nightmare, he was venturing through a nameless forest along sides other monsters he barely knew, and then the trees began growing from the ground and impaling every monster around him while they still lived, and they melted while they were still screaming. And he dreamt of Mickey and his heinous smile. Gods, that smile.

In the end, his brother had to wake him up in the middle of the night, because he had started yelling and crying in his sleep. Papyrus dared not to sleep again the rest of that night, and Sans perfectly understood why. Thankfully for him, those were the only nightmares he remembered, for his mind was merciful enough to cleanse the countless others from his memory.

When the morning came, Sans realized that the money was running low and so he had to get back to work. Although he didn't say anything, Papyrus could no longer bear to be alone, especially after those night terror, because he realized that that is when the awful memories return to him. When Sans told him the news, he wanted deep down to plead his brother to stay home, but he knew that they needed money, and he had barely any energy to even speak, so he just nodded instead.

When Sans was gone, and he was alone in his house like it was a normal day, the thoughts appeared again and Papyrus began to try his best to keep them away. He attempted many things. Reading, web browsing, thinking about something else instead, but the violent deaths, the tortures, the immense guilt he had for not saving the dog, and countless more just kept coming through the crack. All those things kept returning and he kept trying to push them away with as much distraction as he could.

After a while, he began sitting in the bed in a fetal position, rowing back and forth.

"It's all over. It's all over. It's all over."

He kept repeating those quotes and others of a similar sort over and over again. Suddenly he felt the craving of cigars. Specifically the white ones with green smoke that Mickey always had. He remembered the immense calmness they gave him from just a whiff. But then he began thinking about Mickey, and his horrendous smile, and he decided not to think of anything remotely associated with him.

After a while, he managed to lessen the thoughts a bit.

"It's just memories," he said to himself. "Just awful, awful memories."

But as he began to calm down, he was awoken from his somewhat meditation when his phone suddenly rang. He was spooked indeed, for he didn't have any friends that could possibly be calling him, and his father didn't even seem to care to speak with him, and besides his father, the only other person who even knew his phone number was… his brother. An awful worry entered Papyrus. Why would he be calling? Was he in danger? Was the Royal Hunt after him? Had they… had they captured him, and was Sans making one last call to his brother before he was maimed and killed?

Papyrus metaphysical heart went rapid on the mere consideration of those possibilities, and so he hurriedly reached for his phone.

When he saw who was calling, he became both relieved and a bit confused. It was from a number he didn't recognize. Must be an advert. Of course, it must be. They were always calling him these past few weeks. Why didn't he consider that before thinking about the worst case scenarios? Even though he was not in the mood for it, Papyrus answered the call.

"Hey," he said softly. "If this is an advert then so sorry, but I am in no mood to argue. Maybe I'll call you later when I am feeling a bit better and then we can-"

" _Hey buddy_ ," said an awfully familiar voice on the other end.

Papyrus froze in terror. He knew that voice. He knew it far too well.

"Mi-Mickey?" he nervously asked. "Ho-how did you get this number?"

" _Oh it's simple_ ," replied Mickey. " _I just dialled every number until I eventually got this one_."

"Re-really?" asked Papyrus, bewildered by his dedication.

Mickey laughed.

" _Of course not_ ," he said. " _I'm friends with your father y'know? I just had to ask him is all. So anyway, how are you doing? Haven't heard from you since last weekend. You made an amazing exit back there. We laughed about it almost through the entire night. I even laughed so hard I puked. God. The way you suddenly jumped out the window like an old slapstick character. It was beautiful._ "

"You-you," stuttered Papyrus.

He couldn't believe how casual Mickey was about all this. Was Mickey mind in a completely different universe.

" _I what?_ " asked Mickey.

"I- I saw what you did to them," said Papyrus on the verge of tears. "I saw it all. What the- what the hell did you do to them?"

" _So you went back after all?_ " asked Mickey. " _Sounds like you saw the display. Shame though. Would have loved to see your reaction._ "

"Ho-how can you-" began the bewildered skeleton. "How can you be so calm about this?"

" _Why can't I be?_ " asked Mickey unironically. " _A great author once said: 'We are all mad here'. In other words, accepting the absurdity and brutality of everything here has made it easier for me to stay sane in a world of madness. But if adopting that mindset is too hard for you then… well if it's any consolation, those weren't all of the enemies. Just most. The survivors are currently getting themselves comfortable in the capitals dungeon. As for the human? Well, let's just say that I… I mean WE, have plans for him._ "

That answer just made Papyrus more worried. If they had let them live, then just what manner of unholiness were they going to put on the survivors? They obviously were going to do something otherwise they wouldn't have let them live. And what about the human? What manner of unspeakable evil could those plans entail? Even though Papyrus never got a proper glance at the human boy, he couldn't help but feel immense pity for him.

"Wha-what are you going to do to him?" he asked worryingly.

" _Why would we tell you that?_ " asked Mickey.

Papyrus didn't know how to answer that question.

" _Good,_ " said Mickey after a moment of silence. " _Sounds like you are learning._ "

Finally, Papyrus asked what had been on his mind ever since he recognized his voice.

"Wh-why did you call me?"

There was no answer.

"Why did you call me?" repeated Papyrus with more urgency.

After another moment of silence, Mickey finally spoke up.

" _Have you told anyone?_ " he asked. " _About what happened this weekend?_ "

"O-only my brother," Papyrus answered truthfully.

" _All righ_ t," said Mickey after a while. " _But are you certain you haven't told anyone else about it?_ "

"Y-yes," Papyrus answered nervously.

" _Good,_ " said Mickey. " _Because if you did then… well…. ok y'know, what? I am just going to be blunt about this. If you are not going to stop coming to my house at night to pester me, if you are not going to give up on your stupid dreams of heroism and so on, and most importantly, if you tell anyone and I mean ANYONE that's not your brother or a Royal Huntsman about what happened that night… then I'll kill him._ "

Papyrus felt an immense stiffness in his bones when he heard that.

"Ki-kill who?" he asked, even though the knew the answer.

" _Your brother of course,_ " answered Mickey. " _I swear to god, I'll do it. I don't care what your father says, I'll fucking kill him._ "

"Y-you wouldn't."

" _Why not? He's weak and frail. Believe me, I checked him. When I was in the house before we left, I examined his soul, and his body, and noticed just how fragile he his. I'll just have to smash him once and he'll immediately turn to dust._ "

Papyrus felt an awful realization. So that was why Mickey entered their house that morning only to suddenly lose interest a moment later.

"Why don't you just take me instead," asked Papyrus. "If-if I did any of that the blame would fall on me, right? So why would my brother have to take the fall?"

" _You are right,_ " said Mickey. "T _he blame would fall on you. But the dead don't learn. Especially not from their mistakes. So if someone else were to suffer for your actions… well, you'll remember. And if you are smart, you'll learn. Wanna know a secret? I never took you with us because I saw something great in you. I dragged you so that you'll witness what the hunt hold, and that it's not some sort of LARP where we dress in fancy costumes and become heroes. The Royal Hunt is no joke, and I'll hope you'll remember it. In fact, I hope you'll remember these last few days for the rest of your goddamn life. I want it to be a burning reminder to you, that you can't pester me into submission, and that you don't. Fuck. With. Me. You don't fuck with us, or the kingdom, and if this weekend wasn't enough to drill this lesson into your mind then you'll leave me no choice but to proceed step two-_ "

"DON'T!" Papyrus yelled over the phone. "Please. I'll stop, ok? I'll stop everything. Just… please don't hurt him."

There was some silence.

" _So do we both understand each other right?_ " Mickey asked after a while.

"Yes," said Papyrus reluctantly. "Absolutely."

Mickey made an uncomfortable chuckle.

" _I'll see you around then, bonehead._ "

And with that, the line was cut, and Papyrus was now once again left alone in his room, but now his mind was somehow filled with more dread and worry than he had before.

As much as it pained him admit, Mickey was right to be hopeful about one thing. Papyrus was never going to forget what had happened. Not one bit. These thoughts, these horrible memories were going to haunt him for the rest of his life.

 **To be continued...**

…

 _I have become weak. Unfinished. My power, my soul, has grown cold. I have felt it in my bones, my soul, ever since that weekend. After I had fired my energy to tear down that glorified shitpile they called a "house", I felt as if every molecule in my body was being torn apart. My heartbeat went rabid, and my nose bled like the first time I started practising magic. It was only through sheer determination and utter force of will that I stood as hard as I did. As I was slaughtering my way through the countless sheep, I felt as if I was swimming in water. I went through much trouble to hide my weakness from my enemies and compatriots, but I know that some sensed it. I'll give them credit though, they were smart enough to not mention it._

 _The next day, I felt a burning sensation in my veins for hours on end, and when I threw up, I felt the taste of blood on my tongue._

 _Gaster said that it was to be expected and that to prevent any further pain I should stop using magic altogether._

 _Body not strong enough, he said. Can't handle too much magic, he said._

 _But I refuse to give up, especially in this life. I may be too weak, too fragile, but my will, my determination, is stronger than my body. I will restore it, and my magic back to its peak, and I know how._

 _But to do that, I must return to the surface once more. To once again venture to the lands above where I was conceived. There I must meet the legendary Gil, a half breed who was born at a time when humans were still flinging their own shit. This man, if you can call him that, has the power to make me whole again, and if he's able, he'll make me stronger, even if he doesn't want to. But I'll make sure that he does, even if it means I'll have to take a few extra steps._

 _I have spent years in secrecy locating him, but due to desperation, I told Gaster about him and just like that, he managed to locate Gil in mere days. Just as I suspected, Gil still lives and breathes, even after thousands of years of age. He currently lives in a human settlement called London, and thankfully, it's not that far from here._

 _I don't know how long I'll be gone this time around. It may take months or even years, but I will return, and when I do, the entire underlands will shake and bow to my arrival, and I'll be closer than ever to achieving what we want. What I want._

 _They say that everyone wants something, be it simply gold or flesh, but this no riches can buy, and no amount of whores can satiate. My wish, our wish, the wish of all monsterkind can only be paid through fear and blood._

 _-Signed_

" _Mickey" Mickelsson_

 _The leader of the Royal Hunt._


	8. Final notes

Now, the first part of The Shattering AU is finally complete. I honestly didn't put as much effort into the epilogue as it seems, mostly because there is not much that happens other than buildup, and I honestly just wanted to get the first story over with. But is done, for now.

Looking back on AHTR, there are a couple of things that have come into mind. One of which is that Mickey is perhaps the most evil person I have ever written so far. Nothing says Undertale like a character who's a barbaric lunatic that takes pleasures in others suffering.

Another thing, which I just recently noticed, is that I made a bit of a continuity error with Papyrus' battle body. Apparently, he didn't start wearing it until a few weeks before UT takes place, and *spoiler alert* AHTR takes a few years before. But since The Shattering features a lot of convoluted time shenanigans, I decided that he just made it a few years earlier in this AU.

But anyway, I don't know when I will continue the next story, which will most likely be the main one. There are also a couple of prequel stories like this one that I have in mind, and I will most likely write it alongside the big one. One of them is about the sad story of Politics Bear, which I alluded to in chapter 2. While it most likely will be less violent than this and the main story (trust me, it WILL get violent), it is a story that might make you sad in the end.

I think I have spoken enough for now. In terms of fanart and fanfics of this AU (fanfiction of fanfiction?), I completely support and even ENCOURAGE them to an extent just as long as you don't take full credit for my ideas.

But to my 20 or so readers, be patient for more and I hope to see you soon. :)


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